23 March,2017 07:10 PM IST | | Asif Rizvi
Sion Hospital doctors say patient's family turned aggressive during treatment and hit senior medical officer on the hand; relatives claim it was a gentle slap to get her to move out of the way
Even as over 4,000 resident doctors across the state are protesting a string of assaults on them, a senior medical officer of Sion Hospital was allegedly attacked by a patient's relative last evening.
Around 7.25 pm yesterday, a four-month-old girl was admitted to the hospital's paediatric ward with bronchiolitis. Dr Mansi Patil, senior medical officer, was attending to the child when the relatives allegedly turned aggressive and hit her hand.
"There were at least five relatives -- three women and two men -- including the patient's mother, in the ward. When the doctor was attending to the child, they became aggressive and started arguing with her. Then, one of them hit her hand," said Dr Gagan Pratap, a resident doctor at Sion Hospital.
Security personnel were immediately summoned, but they took 15 minutes to reach the ward, said Dr Pratap. "What if the situation had turned violent in that time?"
In their defence, the family claimed that the child, who was on an IV tube, was bleeding from the intravenous injection site, but the on-duty nurse ignored it.
"The nurse came only after repeated calls. As we asked for the nurse to get a doctor, another doctor (Dr Patil) arrived and started checking on our child. We asked her not to interfere. One of my relatives slapped her gently on the hand to get her to move away from our child. Our child was immediately discharged there-after and security personnel threw us out of the hospital," said Soorjan Shaikh, the child's grandmother and resident of Chembur.
Fresh protest
The alleged attack gave a fresh lease of life to the ongoing strike; many resident doctors struck work and protested the alleged attack on the premises of Sion Hospital. The agitation went on till early Thursday morning.
The Sion police detained three persons for the alleged attack, and an FIR was later filed against them under 353 (assault/criminal force to deter public servant from discharging his/her duty) of the IPC. A senior Sion police officer said investigation is underway.
Patients affected
The strike affected a number of patients, many of whom had come from afar.
A heavily pregnant Sumitra Chelaram (27) from Kishangarh, Rajasthan, was turned away due to the unavailability of doctors. "I reached Mumbai at 6.30 am on Wednesday and was received by my father, who lives in Chembur. At night, I began to feel uneasy and my parents brought me to Sion Hospital. But, we were told that there is no doctor available," she complained.
Her father, Kishore Jatole, said he brought Chelaram to the hospital around midnight. "The hospital premises is swarming with doctors, but none of them will attend to us. It is 1.30 am. We plan to take my daughter to another hospital."
