Doing surgery can be stressful for a doctor but there’s no point in taking it out on the patient. A Chinese surgeon went viral after allegedly punching the patient he was operating on at the time.
Chinese authorities investigated a hospital in Guigang, China, over the incident which occurred during an eye operation. According to a statement, the patient was an 82-year-old woman and “during the surgery, due to local anesthesia, the patient had intolerance.” She moved her head and eyeballs multiple times, which made it difficult for the surgeon.
In a video that was released of the incident, the surgeon can be seen punching the patient in the head at least three times while operating on their eyes. The hospital’s parent group, Aier China, has since suspended the surgeon and dismissed the CEO of the hospital where the incident took place in 2019.
During the surgery, the patient could only speak a local dialect so the surgeon “treated the patient roughly in an emergency situation.” Local authorities reported that the patient sustained bruises on her forehead.
After the surgery, the hospital’s management did apologize to the patient and paid $70 as compensation. The patient’s son said his mother is now blind in her left eye, although it is unclear if this was related to the surgeon’s negligence.
Despite the surgery taking place in 2019, it only came to the public’s attention after a prominent Chinese doctor, Ai Fen, shared CCTV footage of the surgery on her Weibo account.