The short video with unclear audio starts with what seems a conversation between the nursing assistant and patient Vasu, recuperating after orthopaedic surgery on his right leg, in the general ward of the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram. Soon, the nurse's mood changes and he grabs the patient's left hand.
Vasu is heard shrieking as his fingers are twisted. The nurse, in white uniform and wearing surgical gloves, than walks away after gesticulating as though he was going to hit Vasu.
Vasu was admitted on March 19 and discharged on March 23. It's not clear who shot the video or when.
Hospital superintendent M.S. Sharmad told TV channels that the accused, identified as Sunil Kumar, had been suspended after a preliminary inquiry.
"As directed by the health minister, all further treatment of the patient will be done free of cost," Sharmad said. WATCH:
In a Facebook message, health minister K.K. Shailaja said such behaviour would not be tolerated. "The government's aim is to make all hospitals people-friendly. Anyone working contrary to that won't have a place in the health department," she said.
Kerala, celebrated for its health-care system, has over the past week been shamed by instances of cruelty to patients by workers in the industry.
On Saturday, a critically injured elderly man was left upended on an inclined stretcher in a hospital after the driver of the ambulance that had brought him in slid the stretcher partially out of the vehicle without waiting for the attendants to arrive.
Police sources said driver Sharief, tracked down and arrested but out on bail, had admitted he was furious at the patient for having defecated and vomited inside the ambulance while being transported.
A video shows the patient lying feet up on a stretcher inclined at 45 degrees from the back of the ambulance to the ground at the Medical College and Hospital in Thrissur. A hit-and-run victim, the patient died the same night.
-The Telegraph, Calcutta