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Turkmenistan's president turns surgeon for a day

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-23 09:12

Turkmenistan's president opened a cancer hospital and performed the first operation himself.

State media said President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov removed a benign tumor from behind the ear of the patient at the hospital's opening on Tuesday. He was assisted by German and local doctors. Berdymukhamedov is a dentist by training.

Berdymukhamedov was health minister when autocratic leader Saparmurat Niyazov dismissed health workers and closed hospitals.

Berdymukhamedov has reversed some of those policies since coming to power after Niyazov's death in 2006. However, officials have suggested that his book on medicinal plants should become a handbook for health workers.