The resident doctors of the Aligarh Muslim University’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital threatened to go on strike on Tuesday after some of the doctors on emergency duty were assaulted by the attendants of a 55-year-old woman, suffering from severe respiratory distress on Monday evening. Later, the woman passed away in the hospital and the doctors returned to work on Tuesday evening after the police nabbed the main accused.
Resident Doctors’ Association president Hamza Malik said the woman was under severe respiratory distress when she was brought to the trauma centre. “Her oxygen saturation level was around 70%. A senior resident of the anaesthesia department told the four or five attendants accompanying her that her condition was very serious and she needed ventilator support immediately. Unfortunately, the hospital didn’t have any ICU bed vacant at them and hence they were advised to take her to some other facility.”
However, Dr. Malik said, they got agitated and started abusing and physically attacking the doctors on duty. “The PPE kit of one female doctor was torn. One of them rushed after the CMO with an oxygen cylinder.” “Meanwhile, the condition of the woman deteriorated and she passed away within an hour,” said JNMCH Principal Shahid Siddiqui. “We understand that all attendants could not process the information given, , but assaulting the doctors is no solution. The attendants refused to give consent for ventilator support. Had they given the consent, we could have helped them in finding a hospital with ventilator facility in the city,” he added. The hospital has six ventilators for cases whose COVID test had not been done but require emergency support, said Dr. Siddiqui. Later, the Aligarh police booked five persons under relevant sections and nabbed the main accused, Suhail Ahmed and Jamal.
