The assaulted house surgeons say they were trying to resuscitate Hemavathi who had been admitted to Bowring Hospital on Thursday evening. She had fallen from her bed to the floor gasping when her relatives entered the scene and attacked the doctors. The labour ward of Bowring Hospital was in a state of disarray with shards of glass and oxygen cylinders and medical equipment strewn all everywhere.
Dr Sambram Shetty and Dr Sridar, the attacked house surgeons, said Hemavathi, who was due for delivery, was admitted around 6.15 pm after being referred from other hospitals with her BP and pulse normal.  Cyntocin infusion to induce labour was started and she was lying down in a left lateral position, he said. She suddenly fell on the floor gasping, said Dr Shetty.
“ Even before we could pronounce her dead, her relatives entered the room, started shouting and attacked us,” he said. About  seven people attacked the ward and were later joined by a mob of nearly 30. The ward was bolted and they started hitting with the BP apparatus and other medical equipment. “We pleaded them to stop as there were other pregnant patients in the ward.” he said but the violence continued for 30-45 minutes.
Meanwhile, many pregnant women at the Labour Ward of the hospital scurried the scene along with their casesheets when caretakers of Hemavathi went on the rampage, according to the doctors. Others were shifted to the post-natal ward.