Doctor charged with sleep blitz
A sleep-starved Piraeus neurosurgeon was charged yesterday with slipping sleeping pills into the coffee of two of his colleagues whom he blamed for regularly lumbering him with extra night shifts. Tzaneio hospital doctor Yiannis Zornatzis, 48, was formally accused of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to his two fellow-neurosurgeons after being caught in the act of lacing their coffee with strong sedatives. He was also charged with potentially harming patients operated on by his sedated colleagues. For the past 20 months, the two surgeons had been finding it increasingly hard to concentrate, and complained of a gradual loss of vitality. When the one man came close to falling into a coma, he decided to undergo full clinical tests, which showed up a high concentration of sedatives in his blood. Suspicion fell on Zornatzis, who was caught red-handed on Thursday. Police said Zornatzis believed his colleagues cheated on the hospital duty roster, assigning him extra night shifts.
