Hospital scuffle: Emirati loses eye

 Ajman: A young Emirati man lost an eye after a scuffle between him, a security guard and a doctor at GMC Hospital in Ajman on Monday.

According to an eyewitness, the doctor allegedly poked the Emirati's right eye with a pen.

Brig Ali Abdullah Alwan, Chief of Ajman Police, said the doctor has been arrested and will be referred to the prosecution after investigations are completed.

A Yemeni woman, Umm Salim, who was waiting for her doctor's appointment at that time, reported the matter to the police after she overheard hospital employees referring the victim, Omran Hassan, 22, to Ajman's Khalifa Hospital, claiming that he had come to the GMC as he was suffering from eye injuries. The woman said she saw the Emirati standing in a queue when a security guard came and pushed him out of the line. Hassan rejoined the line, Umm said, before the guard took him by surprise and punched him on the shoulder, triggering a scuffle.

At that point, a doctor came out of his clinic and poked the victim's eye with a pen, she told the police.

Helping hand

"They [the doctor and the security guard] left him bleeding and took off," she said. Umm Salim brought Hassan water to clean his face and rushed to get another doctor to help him when the acting director of the hospital asked her to leave before taking Hassan to the clinic. "He was fully conscious before the accident," she said.

Disputing the woman's version, an official at the hospital who declined to be identified said the fight broke out after the victim insisted on renewing his prescription for a controlled drug. Seeing the hospital's response, the victim began acting bizarrely, which led to a scuffle, he alleged.Dr Esam Atta, Acting Director of GMC Hospital, confirmed the incident.

"We're sorry for this unfortunate event and for what the doctor has done. A doctor should not behave like that. But it was an accident and he did not mean it. He has shown commitment toward his profession in the last six years he worked with the hospital," he added.

‘Maximum punishment'

Meanwhile, Hassan's father, Hassan Abdullah, said the GMC doctors gave his son anaesthesia and he has been unconscious since then.

Hassan's parents called for the maximum punishment. "A doctor's role is to cure people, not to injure them," the father said. The Ajman Medical Zone said they had notified the Ministry of Health to take legal action.

Dr Anmar Muthafar, Consultant and Head of Ophthalmology Department at the Khalifa Hospital in Ajman, confirmed that Hassan had lost sight in his right eye.

In his report, Dr Muthafar said that Hassan's right eyeball was damaged, including areas near the cornea, the iris and parts of the retina.

He added that they operated on Hassan to stop the bleeding and conducted another surgery to stitch the cornea.