In a hospital in Attingal, Kerala, a routine request to remove footwear before entering a sterile room became the occasion for an act of violence — two intoxicated men hurling abuse and a slipper at a female doctor on the night of August 14. Their arrest the following morning resolved little of the deeper unease, for this was not an isolated eruption but the latest in a summer-long pattern of assaults on those whose vocation is to heal. Across Kerala, healthcare workers have found themselves targets of the very distress they are called to relieve.
Two men arrested for attacking doctor at Kerala hospital
A female doctor was verbally abused and physically attacked with slippers, causing trauma to the healthcare worker.
A routine request became the spark for an assault
Mark
Why does it matter that these two men were drunk? Does that change what happened?
Mimi
It doesn't excuse it, but it's part of the pattern. Several of these attacks involved intoxicated people. It suggests the hospital may need different protocols for managing patients in that state—not just security, but de-escalation.
Luke
The source says they were "allegedly in an inebriated condition." That's one hospital official's assessment. We don't have a breathalyzer result or police confirmation of intoxication.
Mark
Fair point. So what we know for certain is they threw slippers and verbally abused the doctor.
Mimi
Yes. And the hospital official said it was traumatizing for her. That's the human part we can't measure—what it does to someone to be attacked while trying to do their job.
Luke
The official said it was traumatizing, but we don't have the doctor's own account. We're getting the story through the hospital's voice, not hers.
Mark
Does the pattern itself tell us something important?
Mimi
It tells us this isn't random. Five separate incidents in a few months, across different hospitals, different circumstances. That suggests a systemic problem—either in how hospitals manage difficult situations, or in how the public treats medical workers, or both.
Luke
We can say there's a pattern. What we can't say yet is why it's happening or how widespread it really is. These are the cases that made it to news. How many attacks go unreported?
Mark
So the real story is what we don't see.
Mimi
Exactly. The visible attacks are probably just the surface.
El Pulso
- A doctor's routine infection-control request — remove your footwear — was met with shouting, verbal abuse, and a thrown slipper that struck a nurse instead of its intended target.
- Both men fled the hospital before police arrived, but were arrested by Sunday morning and now face charges under the IPC and Kerala's law specifically designed to protect healthcare workers.
- This was the second doctor assault in Thiruvananthapuram district within a single week, and at least the fifth such incident across Kerala since early August.
- The attacks have come from intoxicated visitors, grieving relatives, and even a police officer — suggesting the violence is systemic rather than situational.
- Medical associations have already staged boycotts in protest, and pressure is mounting on authorities to treat escalating workplace violence against doctors as a crisis demanding urgent response.
In a hospital in Attingal, Kerala, a routine request to remove footwear before entering a sterile room became the occasion for an act of violence — two intoxicated men hurling abuse and a slipper at a female doctor on the night of August 14. Their arrest the following morning resolved little of the deeper unease, for this was not an isolated eruption but the latest in a summer-long pattern of assaults on those whose vocation is to heal. Across Kerala, healthcare workers have found themselves targets of the very distress they are called to relieve.
On the night of August 14, a doctor at Gokulam Medical Centre in Attingal asked a patient to remove his footwear before entering a sterile procedure room — a standard infection-control measure. The two men accompanying the patient, Sebin and Anas, were intoxicated. One began shouting at the doctor, hurling verbal abuse, then threw his slipper. It missed her and struck a nurse. Hospital staff called police, but the men fled before officers arrived.
By Sunday morning, both had been arrested. They now face charges under the Indian Penal Code and under Kerala's Healthcare Service Persons Protection Act — legislation created precisely because such attacks had become common enough to require a dedicated legal response. A hospital official described the incident as deeply traumatizing for the young doctor.
The assault was the second in Thiruvananthapuram district within a week. On August 7, two men had verbally attacked a female doctor at Fort Taluk hospital with language so degrading it spread on social media. Days before that, four intoxicated men had assaulted a doctor at a government hospital in Parassala for asking them to follow COVID-19 protocols. In July, a doctor in Alappuzha was attacked by members of a local political organization. In May, a police officer assaulted a doctor at Mavelikkara district hospital — prompting the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association to boycott outpatient duties in protest.
What connects these incidents is not a single motive but a single target: people doing the work of caring for the sick. The provocations differ — a protocol request, a medical outcome, a moment of grief — but the response is consistent. Across a summer of compounding crises, Kerala's healthcare workers have found themselves absorbing not only the weight of a pandemic but the violence of those they are there to help.
On the night of August 14, a woman doctor at Gokulam Medical Centre in Attingal, a town in Thiruvananthapuram district, asked a patient to remove his footwear before entering a sterile procedure room. The request was routine—a basic infection-control measure. What followed was not.
Two men, Sebin and Anas, both from Attingal, had come to the hospital because one of them was injured. According to police, both were intoxicated. When the doctor made her request about the footwear, one of the men began shouting at her, hurling verbal abuse. Then he threw his slipper. The projectile missed the doctor but struck a nurse instead. Hospital staff called police. The men fled before officers arrived.
By Sunday morning, Attingal police had arrested both men. They now face charges under Section 294(b) of the Indian Penal Code, which covers obscene utterances in public spaces, and under the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act—a law designed specifically to protect medical workers from assault. A hospital official told reporters that the incident had been deeply traumatizing for the young doctor.
This attack was not an isolated event. It was the second assault on a doctor in the same district within a week. On August 7, two men had attacked a female doctor at Fort Taluk hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, verbally abusing her with language so crude it circulated on social media. One of the men was recorded saying they would have "pinned her to the wall" if she were a man. Just days before that, on August 3, four intoxicated men had attacked a doctor at a government hospital in Parassala after she asked them to follow COVID-19 protocols.
The pattern extended backward through the summer. In July, a doctor at a primary health centre in Kainakary, Alappuzha district, was assaulted by members of a local political organization. Dr. Sarathchandra Bose filed a complaint. In May, a police officer assaulted a doctor at Mavelikkara district hospital—the officer's mother, a COVID-19 patient, had been brought to the hospital dead. The assault prompted the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association to boycott outpatient duties on June 25 in protest.
What emerges is not a series of disconnected incidents but a sustained pattern of violence directed at people whose job is to care for the sick. The attacks have come from intoxicated patients, from family members, from people in positions of authority. The reasons vary—a request to follow protocol, a routine medical procedure, a patient outcome—but the response is consistent: aggression, humiliation, physical assault. The woman doctor at Gokulam Medical Centre, like her colleagues across Kerala, was simply doing her work when she became a target.
Citas Notables
One of the men was injured and was taken to the procedure room for treatment. Since it was a sterile area, the doctor asked him to remove his footwear. He started to shout and abuse the doctor verbally.— Hospital official to The News Minute
The incident was very traumatising for the young doctor.— Hospital official
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