Nurse in viral video mulls legal action against patient
The nurse who was shown in a viral video being struck by a female patient and her husband in the Balamban District Hospital will meet with the Provincial Health Office tomorrow to deal with her case.
Dr. Olivia Dandan, chief of the Balamban District Hospital, told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview that their team will discuss what legal recourse they will take concerning the incident that had been blottered at the Balamban police precinct.
As of November 20, the video gained 1.4 million views and shared 20,850 times.
The nurse’s identity is withheld for her protection, Dandan said. The nurse did not report for work yesterday.
The female patient shown in the video has yet to issue her statement on the incident and charges have not been filed, said SPO3 Bendie Nuñez desk officer of the Balamban Police Office.
The hospital’s initial investigation showed that the patient attacked the nurse when she failed to address the backflow on her daughter’s dextrose tube.
The patient and her daughter were hospitalized for diarrhea. There were two nurses in the hospital and two nursing assistants at the time last November 14.
The hospital was serving 45 patients that day, 10 of whom were emergency cases. If complaints occurred, the patients are advised to meet with the chief nurse. But the female patient went to the nurse’s station and attacked the nurse, Dandan said.
The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) issued a statement saying they were “outraged” by the patient’s assault and “denounced in the strongest terms all forms of workplace violence against nurses.” “But clearly, the patient and her relative as shown in the video overstepped the bounds of what can be considered reasonableness of their actions,” their statement read.
Sought for comment, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said he will wait for the results of the investigation. “I haven’t seen the video,” he said.
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