MALMO, Sweden, May 8 (UPI) -- A Swedish surgeon performing a Caesarean section allowed a 15-year-old student to wield a scalpel without the patient's knowledge, a hospital spokesman said.
The spokesman told the Swedish news agency TT the student was participating in an unpaid work experience common in Sweden when the surgeon allowed the teen to make a cut into the pregnant woman's belly.
The woman was awake under local anesthetic but was unable to see exactly who was making the incision for her Caesarean at Skane Hospital, the spokesman said.
She had been informed that a student would be present for the operation but was not told the student would play an active role, a supervisor said.
The doctor has since expressed regret at letting the untrained teenager handle a scalpel in an operating room.
Eva Twetman, Skane Hospital's chief of staff, said the woman was never at risk during the procedure but added "what happened lacked judgment."
The report did not give the student's gender, nor details about the baby.
