Any number of horrendous things can happen to you while you're unconscious on an operating table, but what happened to a 50-year-old man who was having his leg amputated at a Shanghai hospital on Wednesday might be the worst of all. In the operating room next door a fire broke out:

A nurse at first tried to douse the blaze, caused by a disinfecting machine that caught fire. When that failed, the staff attending the patient reported the fire and carried on with the operation.

"As they were finishing up, the power went out and then they all left," [Hospital spokesman] Hu said.

Firefighters prevented the doctors from returning to the operating room, and by the time they reached the man in the operating room he was dead, apparently of smoke inhalation.

The staff say that firefighters wouldn't let them back in but still, wouldn't one maybe think about evacuating an unconscious patient while the next room is on fire? The hospital took full responsibilty.

[Image via Kesu/Shutterstock]