Missing patient falls into theatre

A German pensioner who went missing for 12 hours from a medical clinic was discovered when he crashed through the ceiling of the surgery wing. The 75-year-old man, named only as Kurt K, had been taken to hospital in Heidelberg where he was fitted with a neck brace for a spinal injury. He disappeared on Tuesday evening, triggering a search by hospital staff and police officers. He appears to have become lost in the building’s catacombs, before climbing a ladder into the supply shafts about 10 metres up. The police said the case was solved on Wednesday when a ceiling gave way under the man’s weight. He had been lying in a space above the operating theatres and fell into an adjoining room.