Man stabs doctor for 'ignoring his suffering'

A Rehovot man gave himself up to the police yesterday hours after stabbing a doctor at Kaplan Hospital near the city.

The doctor, urologist Guy Marius, was badly injured and taken to the Sheba Medical Center for treatment.

The suspect, a 64-year-old patient, told the police that he had planned to attack the doctor. He said the doctor had ignored his suffering and recently postponed an operation he had been scheduled for.

The suspect entered the hospital at about noon and went to Dr. Marius' room in the urology department. Because he did not have an appointment, the doctor asked him to leave. Instead he jumped on the doctor, knocked him to the floor and stabbed him several times in the back and stomach.

He then fled the hospital, leaving the doctor bleeding on the floor half-conscious, where a department secretary found him and called for help.

"Marius suffered a serious back injury and abdominal bleeding, his condition was moderate to severe. He was sedated and sent to Sheba Medical Center for further examinations," said Professor Zion Hagai, the head of Kaplan's doctors union.

"The suspect said he had planned the attack in advance and apparently brought a screwdriver with him," Rehovot deputy police commander Rafi Boaron told Haaretz.

The suspect said he had decided to hurt the doctor because he had ignored his suffering and put off the surgery date.

The police received the patient's name and address from the hospital and went to his home to look for him. At the same time, however, the patient turned himself in to the Rehovot police, said he was involved in a stabbing and was immediately arrested.

The suspect, who will be brought to Rishon Letzion's Magistrate's Court today for the extension of his remand, did not say he regretted his act. He told the police that he had been treated with psychiatric medication in the past.

The police said there was no apparent negligence by the hospital guards for letting the suspect enter the grounds with a screwdriver. "After all it's not a knife but a work tool," Boaron said. "As an older man the suspect did not raise suspicions and he entered the hospital without being inspected."

The Kaplan Hospital's doctors union has called a strike for today to protest against the attack.

"In the past year some 1,000 doctors have reported that they were attacked by patients or their relatives," Hagai said.

The chairman of the Israel Medical Association, Dr. Yoram Blachar, denounced the incident and said the state had failed to protect its doctors.