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An 84-year-old man almost died in a State-owned hospital when nurses failed to notice his heart and breathing had stopped because they were playing cards, relatives claimed.
Chen Xiang, a retired Beijing railway employee who suffered from kidney cancer, underwent surgery at Fengtai Hospital on Jan 13. The hospital is a large local hospital with more than 1,600 medical staff and 1,100 beds.When my brother pushed open a second door, he found the head nurse and two other people playing cards with a doctor, surrounded by several nurses
After surgery, Chen was returned to his ward. Within minutes, Chen's sons noticed from medical machines that their father's heartbeat and breathing had stopped.
"We were scared and ran to call the doctor and nurses," said Chen Guangzong, one of the sons.
He said his brother Chen Yinghua knocked on the nurse's door but couldn't locate anyone.
"When my brother pushed open a second door, he found the head nurse and two other people playing cards with a doctor, surrounded by several nurses," he said.
He said they asked him to find the attending doctor and returned to their card game.
Chen's attending doctor, Wang Gang, an associate chief physician, came to check on him more than 10 minutes later after a nurse working in a neighboring room called him, Chen's relatives said.
Wang performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation that restarted Chen's heart, but was unable to initiate breathing. Chen was then transferred to the hospital's intensive care unit.
"How could medical care staff be so indifferent to a dying elderly patient?" asked Chen Yinghua.
Fengtai Hospital responded to protests by the family on Feb 2 with a written reply that stated they are investigating the allegation.
Fang Lihua, the head nurse accused of playing cards on duty, has been asked to admit responsibility and will not receive her bonus, the hospital said.
"Playing cards is unconnected to Chen's coma, and the attending doctor did well to save his life," said the hospital reply, Beijing Times reported.
An officer surnamed Ding with Fengtai district health bureau said nurses must always be available, even if there is no patient on the ward.
The bureau will track the investigation and request communication between the hospital and Chen's family, according to Beijing Times.
Statistics show that disagreements between hospitals and the families of patients are on the rise. Courts handled 862 medical malpractice conflict compensation cases in 2006, 997 in 2007 and 1,020 in 2008, according to Beijing Evening News.
A five-month-old Nanjing infant, sent to a local hospital with eye problems, got significantly worse when the on-duty doctor refused to help.
He was reported to be playing computer games that drowned out the desperate pleas of the child's parents. The infant died on Nov 4, 2009.