Chennai Shocker: Oncologist Stabbed multiple times by Patient's Son, Critical

Chennai: In a horrific incident, an oncologist on duty at Kalainagar Centenary Hospital in Chennai was stabbed seven times by a patient's son today. After receiving several stab wounds in his neck, head, and upper chest, the doctor was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the same hospital in critical condition.

According to eyewitnesses, the hospital staff apprehended the assailant and handed him over to the police. Police arrested the assailant, identified as a 25-year-old man from Perungalathur, IANS has reported. The accused, identified as Vignesh was apprehended along with his three friends who had accompanied him.

The incident took place at the Kalaignar Centenary Government Multi-Specialty Hospital at around 10:30 A.M when the senior oncologist, Dr. Balaji was attacked. 

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While police sources told IANS that the exact motive behind the attack is still unclear, a hospital staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, informed IANS that the youth reportedly took this extreme step after expressing dissatisfaction with the treatment provided to his mother at the hospital. The police stated that more details would be available after a thorough interrogation of the accused.

The hospital and its surroundings have been tense since the incident. Following the incident, doctors’ unions in Tamil Nadu were reportedly planning a flash strike. 

DT Next has reported that in response to the incident, the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association has announced an indefinite statewide strike. It is likely that the government doctors will boycott work as a protest against the attack on the doctor. 

Even though emergency services and life-saving treatment will remain operational, non-emergency departments in government hospitals, primary health centres, and medical colleges, will be shut. As per the Daily, the doctors' association will take the final decision on the statewide strike in the evening. 

This violent attack on an on-duty doctor comes at a time when the medical fraternity across the country is still waiting for justice in the case of a rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor in R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata in August that had sparked off nationwide protests by the medical fraternity.

Junior doctors, accompanied by thousands of common people in West Bengal and in other parts of India, conducted many rallies in protest against the ghastly incident and demanded quick justice for the victim and security for doctors on duty. The matter and the investigation by CBI is currently being monitored by the Supreme Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the issue. 

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