Patient claims for property losses after surviving surgery

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A doctor who revived a patient suffering from shock found himself to be shocked later.

A 34-year-old man named Li Ping survived a pulmonary embolism thanks to the effective emergency treatment by medical staff from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. His father, however, came back to the hospital days later, only to claim a compensation of 1,500 yuan (227 US dollars) for the belongings he insisted to have lost during the rescue.

Li, a webmaster of a cybercafe in central China’s Wuhan city, was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago after he collapsed into unconsciousness during work. A 10 people strong medical team came to his rescue, and managed to bring him back to life.

CCTV Photo

Li remained in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) till last Sunday, before he was shifted to a general ward. All seemed to go well as expected, except that the patient’s father put in a claim, for the 500 yuan and other belongings that he said went missing, as the physician, Xia Jian, cut off Li’s clothes to practice femoral artery puncture on him.

After Li’s father's request got rejected, he returned two days later, this time, with two policemen. The dispute ended with the medical workers involved in the rescue consenting to make a compensation of 1,000 yuan.

Sina Weibo Photo

The story soon sparked a spirited discussion online. While many expressed solidarity with the medical staff saying they shouldn’t be blamed for the property loss, others believe the doctor and nurses should have been more cautious in keeping his belongings.

“I’m a medical worker, and I know well the doctor’s move was quite necessary in emergency, as [even a] 0.1 second could make a life-and-death difference. The patient should feel grateful for what the doctor has done rather than regret his minimal loss. He could have died otherwise,” commented a Tencent user named Wave.

“The patient’s claim may deter doctors from applying life-saving measures next time,” said another user named @anhaodaodiyouduohao.

“The hospital is paid to save lives, so it’s also obliged to keep the patients’ properties. The doctor has just done part of his job, but neglected the other part,” said a user named @yutianmu.

The patient’s father later responded expressing his appreciation for the hospital’s efforts in saving his son’s life, and said they would pay off the medical bill of over 100,000 yuan. But it was another story that the hospital didn’t hand in the patient’s belongings to the family, he added.

Sina Weibo Photo

Xia said they had to cut off the patient’s clothes to curtail rescue time in critical situation as such, and the episode would not affect his future decisions, although next time he may think twice about how to deal with the clothing.

A spokesman for Zhongnan Hospital said the hospital authorities were supportive of the emergency staff’s efforts and offered to pay for the compensation.

“We didn’t do a good job in keeping his clothes, so we decided to compensate the losses for the concerns of the patient’s health,” he said.

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