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Patient arrives for liver op with bottle of vodka

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Patient arrives for liver op with bottle of vodka
The scandal at the University Hospital in Göttingen has hit donor numbers. Photo: DPA

A patient allegedly turned up for a liver transplant at a scandal-hit German hospital with a bottle of vodka in her bag. Rules state patients should be sober for six months beforehand.

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A nurse told a court in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, that she found the bottle of vodka in the patient’s bag at the University Hospital in Göttingen and poured the alcohol away, the Hamburger Abendblatt reported on Monday.

The patient admitted to drinking a bottle of vodka a day leading up to the operation, according to the nurse.

The allegations came out in the trial of the hospital’s former head of transplants, Aiman O. The 46-year-old allegedly manipulated medical files to help his patients receive faster transplants in at least 25 cases. He is charged with 11 cases of attempted manslaughter and three cases of grevious bodily harm.

The scandal was revealed in 2012 and has led to the number of people signing up as organ donors in Germany to plummet to the lowest level since 1997.

Organ donor irregularities have also been reported in hospitals in Munich, Leipzig and Regensburg.

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