Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ROME (AP) — Three doctors at a Naples-area hospital have been suspended for treating emergency room patients while they were lying on the floor.
Antonietta Costantini, manager of the public health district that includes Nola hospital, justified the suspensions, saying Tuesday that the physicians should have told administrators the ER had a stretcher shortage.
But Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin defended the doctors as "heroes" who did the best they could under trying circumstances.
Flu and a meningitis scare flooded Italian emergency rooms over the holiday period, when many doctors were on vacation.
The suspensions were ordered after someone uploaded a video to the internet showing doctors at Nola hospital tending to a patient lying directly on the floor and others on blankets spread out on floor.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
