This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

A woman has died after being set on fire during surgery in Romania, the country’s health ministry has said, in a case that has cast a spotlight on the ailing Romanian health system.

The patient, who had pancreatic cancer, died on Sunday after suffering burns to 40% of her body when surgeons used an electric scalpel despite her being treated with an alcohol-based disinfectant.

Contact with the flammable disinfectant caused combustion and the patient “ignited like a torch”, Emanuel Ungureanu, a Romanian politician, said on his Facebook page, citing medical staff at Floreasca urgent care hospital in Bucharest.

A nurse threw a bucket of water on the 66-year-old woman to prevent the fire from spreading. The health ministry said it would investigate the “unfortunate incident”, which took place on 22 December.

“The surgeons should have been aware that it is prohibited to use an alcohol-based disinfectant during surgical procedures performed with an electric scalpel,” the deputy minister, Horatiu Moldovan, said.

The victim’s family said medical staff had spoken of an “accident” but declined to offer details.

Despite some improvements after an increase in funding, Romania’s hospital system is still beset by dilapidated equipment and a shortage of doctors, and finds itself at the heart of repeated scandals.

In relation to a nightclub fire in 2015 that killed 64 people – 26 on site and 38 others later – a former health minister stands accused of having delayed or blocked the transfer of burn victims abroad. Many subsequently died in ill-equipped Romanian hospitals. An inquiry is still ongoing.