AHSA: Two female nurses were beaten up in Prince Saud Bin Juluwi Hospital in Al-Mubarraz Governorate late Sunday night and officials there are pressuring one victim to not lodge a complaint with security authorities, sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. Witnesses told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the nursing staff on the third floor of the building rushed to the scene when they heard an Asian nurse loudly crying out for help. A number of hospitalized patients woke up and left their beds in horror, thinking that some serious matter must have occurred. Workers and patients discovered that a hospital security guard was holding the nurse tightly by her neck and slapping, punching and kicking her, according to witnesses who said the hospital's director on duty was too late in responding and tried to keep authorities from investigating. The nurse has been granted sick leave after undergoing emergency treatment, sources said. People tried to free the nurse from the security guard's clutches, witnesses said, but their efforts were in vain. The witnesses added that the guard walked over to a nearby advertisement billboard, uprooted its metal supports and hit the nurse with them. She tried several times to get up, but she was in too much pain. The guard even wrenched a nearby telephone handset from its holder and beat her head with it. During his assault, the guard repeatedly demanded that the victim hand over a mobile phone in her pocket, according to witnesses. A Saudi female nurse tried to rescue her female colleague, but the furious guard hit her with a severe blow and she started crying in pain, the eyewitnesses said. The guard also tried to beat up a patient, who suffers from a heart problem and a low white-blood-cell count, after he tried to help, witnesses said. The guard tried to launch that assault in the office of the hospital director on duty, in front of a number of people who intervened and protected the man, witnesses said. Members of the nursing staff said they had no idea why the guard attacked the people. Intervention by the hospital's director on duty was too slow and he finally took action after many appeals for help, witnesses said. When he arrived at the scene, he led the security guard by his hand to his office while the Saudi nurses started calling their families to come and protect and save them from the situation, which was not taken seriously by the director on duty, according to Saudi nurses. The husband of one of the nurses took the initiative to call authorities, at 2 A.M., and security patrols arrived at the hospital, but the director on duty did not allow them to intervene, sources said. The director related that the incident was an internal matter concerning the hospital administration, but several of the nurses' husbands insisted that it was a criminal act that required intervention by security men, sources said. When security officers demanded that the director hand over the guard for questioning, the director told them he allowed the security guard to leave the hospital minutes before patrols arrived, sources said. Hospital officials refused to provide Okaz/Saudi Gazette with any information about the incident, but they confirmed the eyewitness accounts.
