China Doctor Punches Patient During Surgery, Suspended After Video Viral

An elderly woman in China went to a hospital for an eye surgery and the doctor administered her local anesthesia. The 82-year-old patient was "intolerant" and was speaking in a local dialect and couldn't understand the doctor's warnings during the surgery. The surgeon, in response, punched her at least three times in the head.

The shocking incident took place at a hospital in China's Guigang in 2019, the BBC reported. The entire incident was recorded on surveillance camera and was shared on Weibo by Dr Ai Fen, who was among a group of doctors who alerted the public to the initial Wuhan Covid outbreak. The video went viral after it was shared on Chinese social media platforms recently.

The hospital said in a statement that the patient was administered anaesthesia for the surgery, but she was intolerant to it. She kept moving her head and eyeballs during the surgery and couldn't understand the doctor's warnings in Mandarin as the patient spoke a local dialect. The doctor "treated the patient roughly in an emergency", the BBC reported quoting the hospital.

"During the operation, due to local anaesthesia, the patient had surgical intolerance and reached up to try to touch [her] eyes. The area near the eyes is a sterile surgical area. Once touched, it may cause infection...the doctor wants to avoid danger," a statement, translated by Google, read. The local authorities reported that the woman sustained bruises on her forehead, the New York Post reported.

Following massive outrage online over the doctor's inhumane response toward an elderly patient, Aier China, the parent group of the hospital has suspended the surgeon and dismissed the CEO of the hospital this week.  

The hospital apologised to the elderly woman and gave her a compensation of 500 Yuan or Rs 5,800. However, the woman's son claimed that she is blind in the left eye but there are no medical reports that suggest it was caused due to the incident.