Multan’s Nishtar Hospital has sacked a doctor working as an additional house officer for misbehaving with a patient’s family, a video of which had gone viral on social media, it emerged on Monday.

In the video, the family members could be heard saying that the patient had passed away after doctors refused to give her a blood transfusion. When the video panned to the doctor in question, he raised his arm, showing his middle finger and walking away. A large crowd could also be seen in the video.

The doctor, identified as Qasim Jamal, was suspended from duty on Dec 19, a day after the incident occurred. Meanwhile, an inquiry committee was also formed to probe the incident.

Subsequently, the hospital issued a notification the same day stating that the doctor had been terminated with immediate effect for misconduct, and violating hospital rules and professional ethics.

In the incident report dated Dec 20, the director of the Accident and Emergency Department said that the patient was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition on Thursday. It said she was in the process of being stabilised after being treated at the department and was to be transferred to a different ward for blood transfusions.

However, the patient’s condition deteriorated to a point where transfusions were no longer feasible, leading to agitation among her attendants, it said.

“Attendants misbehaved with [the] doctor as well as staff on duty,” the report said. “After that, [the] doctor also misbehaved and [showed an] inappropriate gesture to the attendants,“ it said.

It added that treatment was given to the patient “properly and accordingly”.

Meanwhile, the doctor in question also issued a detailed statement on Dec 20 in response to the incident, saying that his reaction was merely a “symbol of protest” against what he called continuous attacks and harassment by the patient’s family.

Regarding the treatment of the patient, he said that her condition had been “very critical and active treatment was ongoing” but her condition deteriorated. He said that they attempted to resuscitate her but she was later declared dead.

He said that the patient’s attendants then started misbehaving with doctors and staff, creating chaos in the emergency room. He added that there was “complete negligence on the part of the security staff, who allowed over twelve men with mobile cameras to enter the restricted area of ​​the emergency room”.

He said that while he and the other staff were treating over a dozen other patients, the attendants continued to “shout, abuse, threaten and harass” him, including getting physically violent.

“After repeated humiliation, verbal abuse, physical threats and four consecutive attempted attacks, it was impossible for any human being to remain unaffected,” the doctor said.

“My reaction was the result of continued provocation, not an unprovoked act. I state clearly that I did not abuse, misbehave or physically attack anyone. I did not utter a single word of profanity. My response was calm and disciplined,” he said.

“I admit that I was under severe mental stress and anger at that time. Protesting is a fundamental right of every individual and employee, and I exercised this right peacefully and non-violently,” he said.

He added that the hospital rules did not clearly refer to silent gestures as violations of the law, saying, “If I had used abusive language or physical assault, it would certainly have been a violation of medical ethics, but that was not the case.”

The doctor said that suspension without investigation was unfair and requested that he be reinstated in order to complete his training.