Doctor Stabbed Multiple Times by Patient’s Son in Chennai

Chennai: An oncologist at the Kalaignar Centenary Super Specialty Hospital here was stabbed multiple times by the son of a cancer patient on Wednesday. The condition of Dr Balaji Jagannathan, who was admitted in the intensive care unit of the hospital, is reported to be stable. The police arrested M. Vignesh, 26, hailing from Perugulathur.

The government doctor associations in the state seeking better security called for a protest against the attack but called off the strike after talks with the government.

The police said Vignesh entered the cabin of Dr Jagannathan, who was treating stage IV cancer patient Kanchana, Vignesh’s mother, under the pretext of discussing the treatment details of his mother. During the conversation, Vignesh turned violent and attacked the doctor with a knife multiple times. The doctor fell on the floor after sustaining injuries on his head, neck and left leg, bleeding profusely.

Dr Jagannathan, the head of the oncology department, had been taking care of Kanchana for the last six months, and had recently administered palliative chemotherapy under supervision.

Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin who visited the doctor along with health minister Subramanian and health secretary Supriya Sahu said Dr Jagannathan’s condition was stable.

The Deputy Chief Minister condemned the attack and said the patient had been given all possible treatments after she was diagnosed with advanced cancer. She is still under treatment at the hospital. “We don’t know about the sudden trigger for the attack,” he said.

Stressing that there was no security lapse in the hospital, he said, “The government is committed to ensure safety and security of the doctors across the state”.

Subramanian said the doctor is stabbed in seven places and there was excessive blood loss and is being treated in the ICU and his condition is stable. The doctors’ family, including his wife who is a doctor, is currently at the hospital.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin assured that all necessary treatment would be provided to the doctor. In a post on social media platform X, Stalin said the government would take all measures to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.

Following the incident, the Opposition alleged that the law and order situation in the state had collapsed. Opposition leader Edapadi K. Palaniswami said that the doctor was stabbed in broad daylight. “This is not an isolated incident,” he said. “A six-member gang attacked a doctor, Muthu Karthikeyan, at Trichy ESI hospital on November 5. The fact that even a government doctor is not safe in a government hospital shows how law and order is under this regime,” he said.