CMCH staff beat up patient's three sons

They first termed the three brothers miscreants, then gave them a good beating, and finally handed them over to police.

The brothers took their sick mother to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) yesterday where they were beaten up by the hospital's class IV employees following an altercation.

Before they were handed over to police, The Daily Star talked to the brothers.

“My mother was groaning in pain due to an abscess since Wednesday evening, and we took her to the emergency department of the hospital around 11:30pm. The duty doctor prescribed some medicines and advised her to undergo an operation in the surgery outdoor the next morning if the pain was not reduced,” said Md Russell.

As she was still in pain, the brothers took her to the surgery outdoor but there was a long queue of patients.

“My elder brother requested the assistant to consider her sufferings and let her see the doctor first but the assistant misbehaved with him,” said Russell, adding, “As my brother protested, he pushed him to the floor.”

“I could not stand such an insult to my eldest brother and caught the hand of the assistant when he was about to push my brother again,” said the youngest brother Jobaidul Islam. “Then some five to six staff of CMCH instantly came there with wood sticks.”“They called us miscreants and started clobbering us with the sticks,” he said. “When my mother came to save us, they also hit her with the stick.”

The eldest brother, Md Kashem, suffered cuts in the head and needed two stitches. He was treated at CMCH before being taken to Panchlaish Police Station. His two brothers Russell and Jobaidul, who own a clothing business in Cox's Bazar, were also at the station.

Their mother Hosne Ara Begum, 56, went back home without treatment, said Joynal, a cousin of the three siblings.

Director of CMCH Brig Gen Khondakar Shahidul Ghani said three “miscreants” started vandalising the surgery outdoor around 1:45pm. “We caught them and handed them over to police."

However, this correspondent saw no sign of vandalism at the scene.

When asked about it, the CMCH director ducked the issue and alleged that the detainees beat up the hospital staff as he declined to let them jump the queue.

President of CMCH Class IV Employees' Association Ratan Ali said the three brothers beat up their colleague Bappi Das without instigation, so the director called in police.

Sub-inspector Rabiul Islam of Pnanchlaish said he did not know what the allegations against the brothers were.