Drunk patient slashes KEM doc’s arm during treatment

A drunk patient slashed a doctor’s arm with a surgical blade at KEM Hospital early on Monday.

The incident took place a week after all the major tertiary care hospitals of the city beefed up the security owing to continues attacks on doctors across the state.

The incident took when Sewri-based Sunil Soma Bhamle, came to Emergency Surgical Room (ESR) of KEM Hospital for treatment. The patient had allegedly suffered minor assault injuries and was in an inebriated state.

“The patient said that no doctor attended to him for about two hours and he got furious by the time they finally called him,” said Dattatray Patil, senior police inspector, Bhoiwada police station.

When Dr Tarun Shetty, a resident doctor from general surgery department was stitching Bhamle’s wounds, the latter got hold of a surgical blade lying nearby and slashed the doctor’s forearm. “The injury wasn’t serious and we have stitched Dr Shetty’s arm,” said Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM Hospital.

The hospital security was alerted who got hold of Bhamle and handed him over to the police. He was booked under various sections of the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2010.

“The offender was produced in court on Monday. He has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days,” added Patil.

Meanwhile, hospital officials confirmed that security measures were in place and patient was accompanied by only one relative inside the hospital.

“It’s unfortunate that the incident took place despite heavy security. If patients behave in such a violent manner, little can be done to prevent such incidents from recurring,” said a senior doctor at the hospital.