A nurse filmed apparently suffocating an intensive care patient and sticking a finger in his eye has been banned from nursing for three years.
Shocking footage of the abuse – filmed at the private Medical Park Hospital in Tokat, Turkey, on 6th July – was recorded by the patient’s distressed family.
The footage shows stroke patient Metin Akca, 62, in his hospital bed while a male nurse covers his head with a sheet.
The nurse is then seen putting his hand over the patient’s mouth and squeezing his neck as he squirms beneath him.
Then the nurse is seen apparently slowly and deliberately poking him in the eye with his finger.
The patient’s relatives watched the horrific scenes unfold on a monitor screen outside the hospital’s intensive care unit and filmed them on their mobile phones.
After he had recovered from his stroke, Metin filed a complaint with the Ministry of Health and another with Tokat Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Following an investigation, Turkish Minister of Health Dr Fahrettin Koca revealed that one of the nurses in the footage would be banned from the profession for three years.
The other – seen wearing a hair net – has to undergo retraining but will never be allowed to work in intensive care again.
Dr Koca said: “As a result of the investigation carried out due to the incident in the private hospital, whose activities are still suspended in Tokat, the sentences given to two intensive care workers who showed violence/ill-treatment towards a patient in the intensive care unit have been decided by the Health Professions Board today [23rd November].
“One of the two health personnel in question has been banned from the profession for three years.
“At the end of the term, he must take 18 months of professional and ethical training in order to work in a health institution and it is not possible for him to work in an intensive care unit again.
“According to the decision of the Health Professions Board, the other health personnel must go through six months of vocational training and may no longer work in the intensive care unit.
“Those who upset society and the health community with their unforgivable behaviour will definitely give an account of their behaviour before the judiciary.”
