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LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - A patient was told there was no reason why he couldn't have surgery in a hospital, despite the smell caused by a dead rodent trapped in the building's ceiling.
Andrew Cowper was due to have an operation at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Hertfordshire when staff "were made aware of a dead rodent in the single storey unit's roof space", the hospital said in a statement.
The hospital said its experts concluded that the dead animal was outside the operating theatre and posed no risk.
But "despite being told that the trust's infection control experts had stated that Mr Cowper was not being exposed to an infection risk, he decided not to proceed with the operation," it said.
Cowper, 19, told the Sun newspaper he had waited 11 months for the operation, and the doctor told him he could go ahead despite the stench.
"He said the smell didn't represent a health risk, but I was appalled," Cowper said. "I asked him: 'If you were me, would you have the operation?' He looked at me and said 'no', so I decided there and then I wasn't going to go ahead."

KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia, March 7 (Reuters) - With little money or manpower, a barely literate 89-year-old Malaysian grandmother running for parliament in Saturday's general election has turned to cyberspace to reach out to her voters with a Facebook profile and her own blog.
The woman, the oldest election candidate in Malaysia and quite possibly in the world, is waging an uphill battle to wrest a seat in the country's northeast from the ruling coalition.
"This is very tiring," Maimun Yusuf told Reuters during a break in her campaign for the 83,000-strong constituency of Kuala Terengganu, capital of oil-rich Terengganu state.
"I have been going non-stop since nomination day but a lot of people are helping me out, so I'm not pulling out," said the woman, a textile trader with seven grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.
Maimun, who gets around on an old bicycle, surprised her townfolk when she turned up to register on Feb. 24 as an independent candidate in a three-cornered race.
Most of them, like her, are Muslim Malays. With little money and resources, Maimun is relying on some 24 volunteers and the Internet to get her message across.
Her Internet savvy supporters helped set up a page for her on Facebook, the global social networking Web site. They are also running a blog for her (www.maimunbintiyusuf.blogspot.com), though she can barely read or use a handphone.
"Alhamdulillah (Thank God), I am happy. I hope it can serve as an example to younger people. They just sit and complain and since no one I knew was willing to fight, I decided that I had to be the one to do it," she said.
So far, she has spent 20,000 ringgit ($6,319) on her campaign, using most of her savings.
Asked about her election message to voters, she said: "I am upset when I see a lot of youths turning to drugs and there are not enough schools. If chosen, I will make it all better."


Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die
BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.
In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish."
It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."
The mayor said he was forced to take drastic action after an administrative court in the nearby town of Pau ruled in January that the acquisition of adjoining private land to extend the cemetery would not be justified.
Lalanne, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Wednesday and is standing for election to a seventh term in this month's local elections, said he was sorry that there had not been a positive outcome to the dilemma.


Man takes car on 2,000 mile test drive
CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian who took a new car on a 3,200 km (1,988 mile) six-day test drive from the city to the outback has been arrested, police said on Thursday.
The 30-year-old convinced a car dealer in the southeastern city of Melbourne to lend him a A$40,000 ($37,000) Honda Accord sedan last Friday and drove the equivalent of London to Istanbul before he was arrested near the town of Tennant Creek, deep in the outback of the Northern Territory.
"He drove from Melbourne to Adelaide to Alice Springs," Tennant Creek police Constable James Gray-Spence told Reuters.
He said the man was arrested without incident at a road block on his way north to Darwin after he failed to pay for fuel at a hamlet.
The test drive was the longest known to Australian police and topped a 500km theft on New Zealand's South Island in 2006.