A BBC worker recovering from a major op to save his legs from amputation told how he was attacked by a nurse – when he asked for painkillers.
Hammad Rashid, 27, was coming round from surgery when he claims an NHS staff nurse attacked him after he asked for painkillers to help him sleep.
Maintenance worker Hammad had waited patiently for the painkillers, but after asking several times over three hours he felt he was being ignored and began recording the nurses on his phone.
But he said one nurse suddenly confronted him and tried to grab his phone with such force it was thrown across the bed, ripping the drip from his hand.
Hammad, a devout Muslim, also says he was served bacon by the nurse just hours before and felt scared and intimidated by her.
After the attack at about 6am last Thursday morning he immediately called police from his hospital bed and watched as the nurse was escorted from the building.
He said: “She was the main person in charge and I was under her care.
“All I was requesting was to get a painkiller and I ended up getting punched.
“I was holding my phone in my hand and she was trying to go for my phone, but she actually hit my phone out my hand and forced my hand backwards into my face.
“But it bent the cannula so it was sticking out of my hand and doctors had to replace it with one further up my arm.
“At the moment I feel like a disabled person I can’t move at all and this has just made things worse.
“I had no-one around me to protect me and it felt like all the nurses were against me.”
He added: “Her outburst was ridiculous,
“I was so shocked I called the police who escorted her off the premises.
“I felt scared. She had told me that security were going to place me in a room on my own because she thought I was being aggressive when it was her that was scaring me.
“I just wanted some painkillers so I could go to sleep.
“She had served me bacon with some salad a few hours before, even though I think she must have known I was a Muslim.
“At first I said I was not going to press charges and I went downstairs for a cigarette but when I got back I saw her leaving and she just smiled at me like she knew she was going to get away with it.
“She didn’t even apologise and after the incident I never saw her again.”
Hammad was brought to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, for vital surgery after he was sent flying eight feet into the air when a car collided with his moped, breaking his left leg in several places.
On Wednesday evening the maintenance worker, who works at BBC Media Village in White City, west London, had surgery on his leg where surgeons inserted a huge titanium plate from the his knee down to his foot, holding it in place with 14 screws.
His mum, Farida Rashid claims she heard the nurse tell other patients to “shut up” and was worried for her son’s safety.
She was “upset” when she heard that the nurse had hit her son and revealed that just hours before she had insisted they were not allowed to stay and see him after his surgery.
She said: “This is not good, imagine how she treats other patients.
“She needs to be retrained at the very least, this should never happen again.
“I heard her telling other patients to shut up.
“When I was feeding him in bed after his surgery she turned off the light, she didn’t care.
“I was very upset by seeing the video, I just want to comfort my son.”
Two days after surgery Hammad was transferred to Ealing hospital to be closer to his home in Greenford, west London, where he expects to stay until he can walk.
He said: “I can’t move my leg at all and doctors have told me I’ll be here for about six weeks or so.
“I’m happy because I’m out of St George’s, but I still feel neglected.
“They’ve lost some of my medical records and don’t always seem to know what they’re doing.
“I think the nurse was scared because I was recording, but I was doing it because I thought they were neglecting me.
“I have no faith in the NHS, the doctors and nurses have done nothing for me it’s just crazy.
“The patients either side of me were shocked and you could see her manager couldn’t believe what was going on.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed they are investigating an incident at St George’s Hospital involving a patient and a member of staff.
