Last update - 00:00 06/08/2007
Sheba doctors assaulted by patient's family for 2nd time in 3 days
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
A female relative of a woman who died in Sheba Medical Center's oncology ward on Sunday assaulted a doctor and a nurse, who fled and hid in another department for two hours.
This is the second time in three days that family members have assaulted Sheba medical staff after a patient has died.
In Sunday's case, the patient, a woman in her 40s, died of cancer over the weekend. Her family was dissatisfied with the medical care she had received.
Hospital officials said the patient had arrived at the ward in critical condition from her nursing home on the hospital grounds. When she was admitted, both the patient and her family knew she had only a few hours to live, the officials said. At the ward, she was treated for pain.
Dr. Yitzhak Ziv-Ner, deputy chairman of the hospital's medical board, said the doctor and the nurse have filed police complaints.
Last Thursday, relatives of a 70-year-old man who died after 18 months in a coma threatened and assaulted a doctor and two nurses in an internal medicine ward at Sheba. On Sunday, about 200 staff physicians held a meeting in response to that incident, to protest violence against medical workers. The meeting disrupted the hospital routine from noon to 2 P.M.
"It would appear that the police are helpless, since many of the [cases involving] complaints submitted by doctors are closed due to a lack of public interest. Sometimes the police say they cannot judge people in their time of need. I agree, but that does not legitimize assaults on medical staff. Boundaries must be set," Ziv-Ner said Sunday.