Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #585

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
By
Fan Wang, BBC News
Chinese authori- ties are investi- gating a hospital over an incident where a surgeon allegedly punched the patient he was operating on at the time.
It was captured in a clip that went viral on Chinese social media this week, sparking outrage online.
The hospital's parent group, Aier China, has sus- pended the sur- geon and dis- missed the CEO of the hospital where the inci- dent took place in 2019.
The BBC has contacted Aier China for com- ment.
The video appears to show the surgeon
punch-
ing a patient in the head at least three times while operating on their eyes.
Aier China, which operates a chain of eye hospitals, said the incident took place during an operation in its hospital in Guigang, a south- western Chinese city.
The patient was an 82-year-old
woman
and "during the surgery, due to local anaesthesia, the patient had intolerance". She moved her head and eyeballs mul- tiple times, according to their statement.
As the patient could only speak a local dialect and did not appear to respond to the doctor's warnings in Mandarin, the surgeon "treated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4vxF0pX1g
the patient rough- ly in an emer- gency situation". Local authorities say the patient sustained bruises on her forehead.
After the surgery, the hospital's management apologised and paid 500 yuan ($70, £55) as compensation, according to the patient's son who spoke to local media outlets. He also said his mother is now blind in her left eye, though it is not clear whether it was due to the incident.
Aier China said the hospital failed to report the inci- dent to headquar- ters. On Thursday it announced the dismissal of the Guiyang hospital CEO and the sus- pension of the surgeon - who is also the hospital dean - over "seri- ous violations of the group's regu- lations", which included other
unspecified offenses.
Though the inci- dent took place in December 2019, it only came to the public's atten- tion this week after a prominent Chinese doctor, Ai Fen, shared CCTV footage of the surgery.
Dr Ai, who was among a group of doctors who alert- ed the public to the initial Wuhan Covid outbreak, had posted the clip on her Weibo account where she has more than two million followers.
Dr Ai has been embroiled in legal disputes with Aier China since 2021 when she went for an operation at one of their hospitals . She has claimed she nearly became blind in one eye due to that opera- tion, but Aier China has denied the allegation.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
China: Outrage Over Doctor Punching Patient During Surgery