An Italian brain surgeon who had an angina attack while performing routine surgery to remove a glioblastoma tumor from the brain of a patient, refused to be treated until he had finished the procedure.

After completing the brain operation in a Naples hospital, 59-year old Claudio Vitale then underwent his own operation to clear an artery.

Vitale is chief neurosurgeon at the Cardarelli Hospital, one of Southern Italy's largest hospitals.

A report in La Republicca on Monday described how Vitale started feeling pain in his chest after he had already started removing the tumor in the brain of his patient. At first he thought it was indigestion and ignored it. However, it then started to feel "like a fist in the middle of the chest".

But he felt he could not stop what he was doing because although he had removed the tumor by then, there was a bleed that needed urgent attention. So he asked a nurse to take a sample of his blood and test it. The test shows the enzymes were elevated and he was indeed having an "infarct" or attack.

His medical team became very concerned and urged him to stop and get emergency treatment, but Vitale refused, saying he had to stop the hemorrhage, and then they could take over.

After he finished the procedure Vitale then underwent his own angioplasty operation to open the blocked artery.

He told the La Republicca that he couldn't leave the patient "at such a delicate moment", and he does not see himself as a hero, he was just "doing his duty", which the patient was trusting him to do.