Pregnant woman allegedly kicked by intern doctors at Bogura hospital during altercation with her family

A pregnant woman, her family members and policemen were allegedly beaten up by over 50 intern doctors of Bogura's Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital (SZMCH) last night.

The incident happened at around 7:30pm.

Aslam Ali said his two months pregnant wife, Joynab Begum, was admitted at the gynecology department of the hospital on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Joynab was administered a saline and she started shaking and vomiting around 3pm. Aslam said he went to the intern doctors twice and urged them to check on her, but they did not come to see her and rather misbehaved with him.

"Later, I told them that if they don't come to see my wife, I will record their negligence in duty. Hearing this, the intern doctors got very angry and told me that they will not treat my wife," Aslam said.

"In the evening, when I went to the intern doctors again, they took me to a room, locked the door and started beating me up. They also beat up my younger brother Jakir Hossain. When my wife came to stop them, the intern doctors kicked her in the belly," Aslam alleged.

When contacted, Shamim Hossain, in-charge of the medical outpost (Silimpur), told The Daily Star, "When we heard that intern doctors are beating up a patient's attendees, we went there to rescue them. I went there with five-six constables but there were at least 50 interns who were beating Aslam Ali. We tried to rescue the man but the intern doctors started beating (punching) us too."

"During the incident, the pregnant woman also tried to save her husband, but a male intern doctor kicked her in the belly and she started bleeding," said the police officer.

When contacted, Abdul Wadud, deputy director of SZMCH, told The Daily Star, "There was an altercation between the intern doctors and the patient's husband when the latter went live from his phone."

"Later in the evening, the patient's husband came with some people and threatened our intern doctors. Another altercation started among the patient's relatives, police and the intern doctors. During this time, several people from both sides got injured," said Wadud.

"We had a high volume of patients today (yesterday evening). There are 1,017 patients taking treatment. Therefore, the intern doctors were not able to check on one patient several times. That's how the incident started," he added.

When asked about the pregnant woman being kicked, Dr Wadud said, "This allegation is not true. She might have gotten hurt during the altercation."

"After the incident, we spoke to the patient's relatives, police and offered further treatment at our hospital but they left," Dr Wadud said.

Jakir Hossain, Aslam's brother, claimed the doctors have threatened them. "We have shifted our patient to a private hospital around 9pm today (yesterday)," he said.