After stillborn delivery at Srinagar hospital, family beats up woman doctor

Samaan Lateef
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, September 17

A woman doctor was brutally beaten up by over a dozen men at Lalla Ded (LD), a premier maternity hospital of Kashmir, after their relative delivered a stillborn on Monday morning.

Dr Anjum, a first-year postgraduate doctor, was beaten up by sticks by the men at the LD, eyewitnesses said. Anjum had received multiple injuries and bruises on her body, doctors said.

The incident took place after the 32-year-old woman from Charar-i-Sharief locality in Budgam delivered a stillborn.

The attendants of the patient got enraged and called their male relatives to attack the doctors, eyewitnesses said.

“The patient got pregnant after four years of marriage. We can understand their anguish but attacking the doctors is hooliganism,” said a doctor.

While most of the doctors left the operation theatre, Anjum was caught in the corridor and ruthlessly beaten up.

Fearing assault, the doctors stayed away from the labour room. Eyewitnesses said the assailants didn’t allow the doctors to take a round of the labour room which inconvenienced the patients.

Doctors have demanded strict action against the attackers.

Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Farah Shafi said the baby suffered intra-uterine death, enraging the family. “We are deliberating on the issue,” Shafi said.

Doctors Association Kashmir has been repeatedly asking the government to bring in an ordinance against violence on doctors as a non-bailable offence as the attack on doctors by attendants in Kashmir has become routine.