COVID-19 patient assaulted by nursing staff in hospital dies

Photo used for representational purpose

A coronavirus patient, who was recently seen in a viral video allegedly being thrashed by the hospital staff in the Civil Hospital in Gujarat's Rajkot, died.

The patient in the video has been identified as 38-year-old Prabhashankar Paatil. He was shifted to the state government-run PDU hospital on September 8 after undergoing a kidney procedure at a multispecialty hospital in the city where he was found to be COVID-19 positive.

In the video that went viral, a medical worker can be seen pinning down Paatil to the floor by placing his knee on his chest, while others hold his hand and a security guard is wielding a baton.

The medical worker can be heard saying that policemen are coming and as the patient tries to escape, the security guard pushes him down to the floor again and places his foot on Paatil's shoulder, while the medical worker slaps him.

As the video went viral, the hospital administration said that the medical workers were ‘restraining' the patient as he was trying to hurt himself.

"The patient had a bout of hysteria and attempted to remove the intravenous tube. He was trying to hurt himself and other patients. He was then restrained," said Dr. Pankaj Buch, superintendent of Civil Hospital.

The hospital administrations reportedly claimed that the patient was "mentally disturbed".

However, Paatil's family rejected the hospital's claim, saying he never had any mental illness and on September 12 morning, his condition was fine and but by evening, they got a call that he had died. The family alleges that Paatil died due to beating and not coronavirus.

(With inputs from ANI)

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