As government health care horror stories go, this one is in a class by itself.

Because a C-section in an Italian public hospital was delayed by over an hour while two doctors had a fistfight, an infant suffered heart problems and possible brain damage and his mother had to have her uterus removed.

Italy’s Health Minister travelled to the mother’s bedside to apologize, telling the media afterward, “I tried to give her words of hope, and above all I tried to tell her that the government was with her and her family at this time.”

I think that family has probably had all the government it wants by now.