Among the complaints MEDIO received: a man whose entire stomach was removed during what was to have been a relatively routine gall-bladder operation.

CNN: HOSPITALS IN FLUX

He is currently standing at around 1 percent in public opinion polls and has been sidelined for a month recuperating from double gall-bladder surgery.

CNN: Treasury transfers $12.6 million to Buchanan

He is also more popular than many other politicians, not least because, two years ago, the then 59-year-old rose Lazarus-like from a coma brought about when a routine gall-bladder operation went wrong.

ECONOMIST: Jean-Pierre Chev��nement, French republican

However, she has suffered severe side-effects affecting her gall bladder, her kidneys and her memory.

BBC: Cancer survivors 'facing neglect'

And there's no avoiding increased risks of cancer - to liver, gall bladder and the lymph system.

CNN: THE GREAT DIOXIN SCARE

Today researchers are building force feedback surgical instruments for use in simulating--and eventually performing--minimally invasive surgical procedures like angioplasty or laparoscopic gall bladder removals.

FORBES: Desktop fingerprints

Neither resignation is a surprise: Mr Ashcroft has been suffering from pancreatitis (he had his gall bladder removed earlier this year) and Mr Evans's yearning to go home to Texas is well-known.

ECONOMIST: The new guard