ADK doctor suspended for assaulting patient

haveeru
A doctor at ADK Hospital has been suspended for allegedly assaulting a patient who went to the Hospital for treatment on Tuesday.

The patient involved in the incident confirmed to Haveeru that the doctor who was suspended was Dr. Usama Ali Omar. Although the Hospital did not reveal the name of the doctor involved in the incident, the Managing Director of ADK, Ahmed Affaal, told Haveeru that one of their doctors had been sent home for getting into a fight with a patient. The tall Moroccan doctor is married to a Maldivian. The patient involved in the incident had gone to the Hospital for treatment for a gastric problem.

Affaal said that the doctor involved in the incident had been suspended indefinitely and that the disturbance had occurred near the front gate of the Hospital.

“As soon as we became aware of the incident we took the necessary steps and sent him home,” Affaal said. He also said that they were taking the matter very seriously.

The patient who was injured in the incident told Haveeru on condition of anonymity that he had suffered several injuries during the fight with the doctor. He had later been treated at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital for the injuries.

The man also said that the fight had begun as an argument inside the doctor’s room.

“The doctor was talking in English and then he said ‘mirus’ (chilli) and I asked him what ‘mirus’ meant,” the man told Haveeru. “I asked because he was talking in English and said only one word in Dhivehi. That’s when he lost his temper.”

He said that the doctor had first attacked him after he had gone out of the room after arguing with the doctor and was trying to get on his motorcycle which was parked in the Hospital’s parking zone. Some of the eyewitnesses at the scene also said that it was the doctor who had struck the first blow. Eyewitnesses said that the fight had continued again as the patient was leaving the Hospital and that the doctor had pulled the patient off his cycle and thrown him to the ground before hitting and kicking the fallen man.

“The doctor threw him to the ground and attacked him mercilessly,” another eyewitness said. “It was just shocking to see.”