Suspect says hospital stabbing due to rage

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, March 30, 2012
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The suspect of a hospital stabbing attack that has shocked China revealed Thursday that after denied the medication he demanded, a flare of rage sent him into the killing spree.

"I felt the doctors were intentionally against me," 17-year-old Li Mengnan said while in police detention.

"I should not have killed an innocent," Li said, adding that he "really hated the doctors" when they turned him away after he'd come all the way to Harbin.

The tragedy occurred last Friday when Li sought medical help but was not given immediate treatment at the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University in the northeastern city of Harbin.

Furious, Li went away and returned with a knife. He barged into an office, stabbed medical practitioners in the head and neck before trying to end his own life with the knife, police said.

One critically wounded medical intern later died. Three other hospital staff suffered injuries.

Hospital records show Li was suffering from ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic disease that causes inflammation around the spinal vertebrae, along with tuberculosis.

Doctors of the hospital said Li was not given the drug for treating ankylosing spondylitis as infliximab could harm or even kill a tuberculosis-carrier.

Li told police during their interrogation that doctors at the hospital had a terrible attitude and "deliberately rejected" treating him.

"They did not know how much pain I was in," Li said.

Li said he missed his family very much. "Though my parents have divorced, I have a loving family of grandparents, uncles, aunts, and siblings," Li said. "I deeply regret that I did not listen to my grandpa and control my rage."

Chinese criminal law provides that a person can be convicted of murder or manslaughter -- both capital offenses -- after he or she turns 14. Police said they are still investigating Li's case.

The stabbing was the latest that reflects on the simmering tensions between doctors and patients in China. Last September, a patient stabbed a surgeon in Beijing Tongren Hospital and seriously injured her following a medical dispute, in which the patient alleged that the surgeon had committed malpractice during an operation.

Experts blame the country's defective medical system for the growing violent doctor-patient disputes.

In China, doctors usually work long hours for relatively low pay, and their relations with patients are often strained as many patients are dissatisfied with difficult access to treatment, high medical fees, and in some cases, "unfriendly attitude" of doctors.

Over the past few days, Chinese from across the country have expressed their sentiments for the deceased victim Wang Hao, a 28-year-old medical student who had been accepted to pursue a doctoral program in Hong Kong.

Families, friends, and more than 1,000 people mostly medical practitioners mourned Wang's death at a memorial Tuesday in Harbin while many more strangers elsewhere in the country held vigils for him on the Internet.

"Wang was tall and handsome in the eyes of the girls in his class," a former classmate told reporters. "He was fascinated with medicine and so good. He was the most promising doctor among us."

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