After a patient at Sion Hospital died late on Saturday night, three of her relatives thrashed and abused a first year resident doctor of the medicine department
Doctors of Sion Hospital went on a strike and held a candle march after a patient's relatives abused and beaten up a doctor on Saturday night
Doctors across the state are a scared lot at the moment, as the third instance of a doctor being beaten up by a patient's relatives in a week was reported on Saturday. After a patient at Sion Hospital died late on Saturday night, three of her relatives thrashed and abused a first year resident doctor of the medicine department. Though the cops arrested the attackers, they were later released on bail. In protest against the incident, over 200 doctors of the hospital went on a strike and held a candle march. Even routine and emergency services at Nair, Sion and KEM hospitals have been stopped.
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The accused have been identified as Akash Siddhu (31), Atish Ghavri (37) and Amit Singh (34). Sion police arrested them under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of IPC and relevant sections of Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss of Property) Act 2010.
Condition worsens
On Friday evening, a woman suffering from chronic kidney disease was admitted to ward number 20 of the hospital in a serious condition. Though treatment was immediately started, her condition started to deteriorate soon after. Around 10 pm on Saturday when the woman died, Dr Rohit Kumar Jain immediately informed her relatives.
"The moment I told them about her death, her family members started crying. Suddenly three of her relatives came forward and started accusing me of not paying attention to her," said Dr Jain, adding, "I told them that we were monitoring her condition closely, but even then they started arguing."
Punched hard
Sensing that the situation may turn ugly, another doctor present at the spot called the security guards, who took the relatives outside. Suddenly the trio who were arguing with Dr Jain came back and started thrashing and abusing him. Another resident doctor said, "They punched him so hard that he fell down. When other doctors intervened, the security guards rushed in to help him."
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a doctor said, "Such things are going on in every hospital. How can we serve patients when we don't feel safe? We will resume work only after the hospital authorities ensure our security."
When contacted, DCP (zone-4) N Ambika said, "As soon as we received the complaint, we arrested all three of them. After being produced at the holiday court today, they were granted bail."
Exhausted and shocked
Dr Kumar had resumed duty on the morning of March 17. After attending OPD he went to the ward and was on duty for the entire night. He got a break on March 18 afternoon, for three hours. He resumed work again in the evening. He was so exhausted and shocked, that he couldn't even react to the incident. One of his colleagues said, "It's really tragic to receive such treatment. He has been off duty since the incident took place and we are trying our best to help him recover from the trauma."
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