“A punch in the head”: finding the waiting time too long in the emergency room, a young man hits a doctor

The events took place Friday evening at the AP-HP (Public Assistance – Paris Hospitals) Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne). A young man who accompanied his father to the hospital attacked an emergency room doctor because he considered the waiting time too long. The individual was arrested on site, according to information from our colleagues at Parisian.

“He hit him in the face.”

Around 11 p.m. this Friday, an octogenarian came “to be installed in the short-term hospitalization unit” waiting to find a bed in a service. But the patient's son, whose sister also works in the Paris health establishment, considered this wait too long.

Insults began to be uttered against the emergency doctor by the young man, before he physically attacked the hospital staff. “He shouted invectives then he hit him in the face, a punch in the head”says Olivier Bruley, nursing assistant in the Kremlin-Bicêtre emergency room.

The doctor was slightly injured during his fall, but shortly after, according to the daily, the police quickly intervened. “Fortunately, police officers were nearby for another patient. They intervened immediately”testifies the caregiver.

The suspect was arrested and then taken into police custody. “He is being prosecuted before the criminal court and placed under judicial supervision with a ban on appearing in hospital while awaiting his judgment”after being referred this Sunday for intentional violence committed against a doctor, indicates Stéphane Hardouin, the prosecutor of Créteil.

In recent years, violence and attacks have become recurrent in healthcare establishments. “Fortunately, attacks do not happen every day, but they do happen nonetheless. An intern was also attacked last week, for example.”underlines the FO union.