China nurse sacked after slashing face of child patient

GUIYANG - A nurse in southwest China's Guizhou province has been fired for slashing the face of a two-year-old patient in the intensive care center of a local hospital, local health authorities said Friday.

The provincial health authorities launched an investigation in response to public outrage following local media reports saying a nurse slashed the face of a child suffering from the congenital heart disease seven times just after the child finished an operation and the child died the next day.

The investigation found that the fierce slash was not intended to wake up the child from surgery and the action seriously violated the nursing norms and reflected the loss of work ethics of the medical staff, the provincial health bureau said in a statement.

The person in charge of the intensive care unit at the Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital was suspended from his post and the head nurse was removed from her post, it added.

In a letter published Friday, the hospital publicly apologized to the families of the dead child and the general public for the severe violation of hospital regulations and loss of work ethnics.

Earlier on Thursday, the hospital struck a settlement with the dead child's families over the medical dispute, the bureau said, without giving details.