A RENOWNED surgeon's career is in doubt after he was bitten by a drunken tourist.

Frank Stafford had the tip of his finger ripped off after he was attacked as he left a restaurant in Barbados.

The ear, nose and throat (ENT) consultant was with colleagues a day after arriving to perform voluntary medical work on the island.

A man jumped on his back as he tried to leave the bar, forcing him to the ground before biting him.

The 17-year-old was fined 600 Barbados dollars for the assault, before being deported from the island.

Mr Stafford, 46, said he feared his career could be over because he may not be able to operate.

He has already had to cancel all patients booked for treatment next month at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle.

Mr Stafford said: "This has absolutely devastated me and could ruin my professional career. I have trained for years to do the work that I do and am facing the prospect of losing all that."

Mr Stafford, of Jesmond, Newcastle, was the first ENT surgeon in the country to practice microvascular surgery - remedial work on cancer patients who have had tumours removed from their neck, head or throat, using skin from other parts of the body - having trained in the US.

He is a specialist in thyroid and sinus surgery and carries out at least 15 major operations a month.

For the past four years he has given up a fortnight of his leave to help out at Bayview Hospital, in Bridgetown, Barbados, which does not have his expertise.

The attack happened in the Cafe Sol bar in the St Lawrence Gap district, where Mr Stafford had been unwinding after a ten-hour operation to remove a tumour from a 14-year-old girl's throat.