Heart attack doesn't stop surgeon from completing operation!

NAPLES, Italy - March 20, 2009 - An Italian surgeon had a heart attack while performing a brain cancer operation but carried on until he had removed the patient's tumor.

''I couldn't leave him at such a delicate moment,'' Naples neurosurgeon Claudio Vitale told La Repubblica about the angina spasm he shrugged off.

''I'm not a hero, I only did my duty,'' said the 59-year-old, who had an operation to clear an artery after he had scrubbed off.

Vitale suffered chest pains while he was halfway through the brain operation but refused his team's efforts to persuade him to get emergency treatment, only agreeing to give a blood sample that confirmed he was having a mild heart attack.

Vitale was set to leave the hospital Friday and was keen to return to Naples' Cardarelli Hospital.

''I'll have a week off and then I hope they'll let me get back to work,'' he said.

From his hospital bed, Vitale kept up with his patient's progress and was pleased to find out that he is already on the mend.