Liquid crystal burning bright, saves poor Leo from his plight

Don't you hate it when that happens? Right in the middle of an emergency appendix operation, BAM!, all the power goes out. According to an article in Reuters, Leonardo Molina was on the operating table on July 21st when everything went dark.

TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

A quick-thinking family member rushed out in the hallway and grabbed a handful of cell phones.

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?

Using the light from the cell phone screens, surgeons were able to complete the operation before the anesthesia wore off and save Leonardo's life.

And what shoulder and what art Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand and what dread feet?

"The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work," an unnamed hospital spokesman is quoted as saying. I'd remain unnamed too if I said something like that.

What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

Not to be insensitive, but one has to wonder how they dealt with the annoying tendency of phone screens to turn themselves off after 30 seconds or so. Did they have a team of holders standing around the table closing and reopening the phones, struggling to get them in the right position for the surgeon to see anything?

When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee?

One more thing puzzles me. With all those cell phones in the room... why did no one take a picture?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

[Via Engadget and Switched, with a little help from William Blake]