Chinese authorities are conducting an investigation into a hospital following an incident where a surgeon purportedly struck a patient during surgery, the BBC reports.
The incident, captured in a viral video on Chinese social media, sparked widespread outrage.
Aier China, the hospital’s parent company, has taken action by suspending the surgeon involved and removing the hospital’s CEO, where the incident occurred in 2019.
The BBC contacted Aier China for their statement on the matter.
The video seemingly depicts the surgeon hitting the patient on the head multiple times while performing eye surgery.
Aier China, which manages a network of eye hospitals, stated that the event occurred during an operation at its Guigang hospital in southwestern China.
According to their account, the patient, an 82-year-old woman, exhibited discomfort due to local anaesthesia, resulting in involuntary movements of her head and eyes during the surgery.
It is claimed that as the patient could not understand the doctor’s warnings in Mandarin and spoke only a local dialect, the surgeon responded roughly in an emergency.
Local authorities reported the patient sustained bruises on her forehead.
Following the surgery, the hospital apologised and provided 500 yuan ($70, £55) in compensation, as disclosed by the patient’s son in local media interviews.
He also mentioned his mother’s blindness in her left eye, though it remains uncertain if it directly resulted from the incident.
Aier China acknowledged the hospital’s failure to report the incident promptly and, on Thursday, announced the dismissal of the Guiyang hospital CEO.
They also suspended the surgeon, the hospital’s dean, citing ‘serious violations of the group’s regulations’ alongside unspecified other offences.
Despite the incident in December 2019, it only came to public attention recently after a renowned Chinese doctor, Ai Fen, shared CCTV footage of the surgery on her Weibo account.
Dr Ai, known for her involvement in alerting the public about the initial COVID outbreak in Wuhan, has been in legal disputes with Aier China since 2021.
She claims to have nearly lost vision in one eye following an operation at one of their hospitals. It is an allegation that Aier China vehemently denies.
