Nurse and doctor stable in brutal stabbing

The nurse and doctor injured on Monday when a patient stabbed four people in a private hospital in Shenzhen are in stable condition.

Representatives from the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the Shenzhen Medical Doctor Association and the Shenzhen Pengcheng Hospital, where the attack occurred, visited the injured in the Shenzhen No 2 People’s Hospital and the Shenzhen People’s Hospital on Thursday morning.

The nurse, Ye Huan, is still in intensive care, but she could sit up in her hospital bed. Both her hands are still wrapped with bandages.

On Monday a man with knives attacked four people in the ear, nose and throat department of Shenzhen Pengcheng Hospital. The doctor was cut several times in the head and the neck, while the nurse was taken as hostage and stabbed more than 20 times on her arm and fingers.

The hospital later confirmed the attacker was its patient and had an allergic rhinitis surgery in July with the attacked doctor as his attending physician. The patient didn’t report any dissatisfaction with the hospital or other supervising bureaus before the rampage.

Police of Luohu district said the attacker, named Ou Changjun, attacked the four because of “dissatisfaction with the treatment’s effects”, and he has been detained.

Deng Liqiang, director of the law department of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, said such acts are “inhuman and won’t be tolerated”.

He said if a patient has a problem with the treatment, he or she can go to the supervising department or to court, but shall by no means hurt the doctors.

Qiu Penglu, vice-director of the membership department of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, said such vicious attacks on doctors lately will discourage doctors.

An intern was stabbed to death by a patient at a hospital in Harbin in March.

She said a doctor is a profession that has risks. If patients vent their anger on doctors, then doctors will hesitate to risk a diagnosis and ask the patient to do more detailed tests, and that may delay treatment. She said such things have happened before.

According to a report of Nanfang Daily on Wednesday, a security guard whose sister worked as nanny in Ou’s home said Ou and his wife both work, and his parents are both retired officials.

The guard said Ou has had rhinitis for years and has had headaches so severe that he dare not drive his own car. He also said that a day before the attack, Ou did a CT examination at the Peking University Shenzhen Hospital and found out he had an incurable disease, the report said.

huangyuli@chinadaily.com.cn