Tension prevailed at Shri Shri Pitambar Dev Goswami Civil Hospital in Gormur, Majuli, last night after the relatives of a 74-year-old cancer patient allegedly attacked medical staff following the patient's death.
The critically ill patient, Digen Halder, was brought to the hospital in a severe condition. An ICU technician recounted, “The patient was in a very critical condition while he was brought to the hospital; however, we tried our best to save him. He died while we made an attempt to connect the cannula for saline. I tried to conduct the ECG test, but the relatives of the patient started to beat me. They created a ruckus inside the hospital. They punched me, used sandals to beat me, and also used a mobile phone to hit me. They dragged me from the ICU cabin to the Emergency unit.”
Following the assault, panicked doctors and nurses considered leaving the hospital due to fears for their safety. One nurse expressed, “The relatives of the deceased patient didn’t allow us to explain to them that the patient had already died. Our resident doctor at the emergency immediately responded after hearing about the incident. But they were not cooperating with us. They chased us and also thrashed two of our nurses very badly. We also have a family, a life; we also need security. A medical staff shouldn’t be treated like that.”
The patient's relatives vandalized various pieces of equipment in the ICU and created further chaos.
A resident doctor on duty stated, “The condition of the cancer patient was very critical. He was also having diarrhea. He was referred from emergency to ICU after being treated initially. He expired while our nurses tried to connect the cannula. The relatives, without trying to know about the situation, attacked our staff and ICU technicians. The other patients were also being harassed during this incident.”
In response to the violence, police detained three relatives of the patient involved in the incident as a large police team worked to control the situation.
