Man sues police who ‘dragged’ him from dying daughter’s side

A HOSPITAL consultant is suing police after claiming he was physically dragged from his daughter’s bedside and arrested after doctors said they were going to turn her life support off.

Rashid Abbasi, 59, and his wife Aliya, also a former doctor, have accused officers of branding him “an animal” as he struggled to remain with his dying daughter, Zainab.

The incident, which was caught on an officer’s body-worn camera, appears to show Mr Abbasi being wrenched away from his daughter’s bedside as his wife pleads for compassion.

Police were called by the hospital after Mr Abbasi became distressed when doctors told him there was nothing more they could do for Zainab, who was suffering from Niemann-pick disease, a genetic condition that left her unlikely to survive into adulthood.

Staff at the hospital, in the north of England, claimed they were forced to call the police last August when Mr Abbasi became abusive and pushed a senior doctor who tried to prevent him returning to his daughter’s bedside.

At one point in the video footage the officers accuse Mr Abbasi of kicking and biting and a female constable is heard referring to him as “an animal”. He was arrested on suspicion of breach of the peace and assaulting police.

It later emerged that he suffered a minor heart attack during the incident.

After the confrontation the hospital applied to the High Court to have Zainab taken off a ventilator but she died three days before the hearing.

The police force involved, which cannot be named for legal reasons, said officers had responded to a call reporting that a man was being violent and abusive towards staff and had assaulted a consultant.