Missouri doctor loses license for amputating toe on porch

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri doctor has lost his state medical license after amputating a patient’s gangrenous toe on the porch of his rural office.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts ordered in June that 73-year-old John Ure’s physician and surgeon license be revoked.

Ure had been practicing in Deepwater, located about halfway between Springfield and Kansas City.

Documents filed by the board say Ure performed the amputation in 2016 on the porch of his office, which doubled as a machine shed and lacked running water.

Ure said Wednesday that he was simply helping a friend who refused to go to a hospital, and that the instruments he used to perform the surgery were “absolutely perfectly sterile.”

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