Claim: News anchor Syed Ali Haider talks about a case of sexual harassment at Quetta’s Heart and General Hospital. He links a viral clip of a doctor sexually assaulting a patient during a surgery to a video of a woman demanding justice for being harassed during surgery.
Fact: The video of a doctor sexually assaulting a patient is not from Quetta’s Heart and General Hospital — or Pakistan, for that matter — but from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, where the accused anaesthesiologist was identified, sacked, and arrested. The clip of the protesting patient, however, is from Quetta, but it has no link to the viral video from Brazil.
Two separate incidents of alleged sexual harassment took place, one in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and the other in Quetta, Pakistan. In Rio De Janeiro, an anaesthesiologist assaulted an unconscious patient during surgery; he was later arrested. In Quetta, a woman alleges she was sexually harassed while unconscious during a surgery at Heart and General Hospital.
On 11 August 2022, anchor Syed Ali Haider posted a video blog (archived here), or vlog, with the following caption:
“دوران آپریشن ڈاکٹر کی مریضہ کیساتھ حرکتیں کرنے کی ویڈیو بے شرمی کی انتہا [A video showing a doctor engaged in indecent acts with a patient during a operation is the height of shamelessness.]”
The vlog was shared on Facebook and YouTube (archived here), where the thumbnail features the following text:
- “دوران آپریشن ڈاکٹر کی مریض کیساتھ ناز بیا حرکتیں کرنے کی ویڈیو وائرل [A video of a doctor performing indecent acts with a patient during an operation has gone viral]”
- “بےشرمی کی انتہا [The height of shamelessness]”
- “ایسے گھٹیا شخص کو چوک میں لٹکادیناچاہیے [Such a depraved person should be hanged in the square]”
What is the vlog about?
In his vlog, Syed Ali Haider states that incidents of sexual harassment and assault are common at hospitals. He also states that perpetrators of such incidents are the “black sheep” of the medical profession. He discusses a recent incident of assault in Quetta, saying he cannot show the video and choosing the words to describe it would be difficult for him. Describing the clip, he states that a doctor can be seen in an operation theatre where his colleagues are operating on a woman’s abdominal area.
The doctor in question, he says, does not have his pants on and is engaged in indecent acts near the unconscious woman’s face, making use of the fact that there is a divider between him and the other doctors. He adds that to him, it does not appear to be CCTV footage but that it was likely shot by a staff member.
“Whoever recorded it ensured it reached the patient because, in another video, the woman can be seen making noise, demanding to speak with the medical superintendent to tell him, ‘I was harassed.’ What must she be going through?” he says.
Haider says the video might reach the viewers through WhatsApp but vows not to spread it further. “This was a hospital in Quetta — Heart and General Hospital — and the video is viral on social media. I can’t confirm if it’s the same hospital but from the video I’ve seen, [the name of the hospital] is written on it. It’s clear that [the doctor] is engaged in indecent acts in one video and [the survivor] is making noise about being harassed and demanding justice in the next one,” he says.
The anchor further states that he has not heard of any rebuttal or action being taken against the doctor in question as per his information.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check used relevant keywords to search for any recent news reports about an incident that Syed Ali Haider talked about. We came across news reports about a Brazilian anaesthesiologist who was caught on video sexually assaulting a pregnant woman during a Cesarean delivery (C-section) before being sacked and arrested.
A BBC Pidgin report states that Giovanni Quintella Bezerra was arrested by Rio De Janeiro police after a hidden camera showed him orally rape a woman during childbirth. The incident went on for 10 minutes and Bezerra’s colleagues had raised suspicions over his conduct, according to Newsweek and Yahoo! News. The suspect “heavily sedated” the victim before what investigating officer Deputy Bárbara Lomba termed “the most terrifying scene”.
On the other hand, a video went viral on 2 August 2022 that shows a woman protesting against the harassment she allegedly experienced at the Heart and General Hospital in Quetta. The text, “Ye hai hospital ka haal, jahan patient ko behoshi k halat main pata nai kya kch kiya jata hai [This is the condition of the hospital, where an unconscious patient is subjected to god knows what]. Shame on these f***ing people,” was superimposed on it.
In that video, the woman can be heard saying, “Where is the MS [medical superintendent]? Who is the MS? Listen to me. He harassed me. I was unconscious. He touched me.” The incident and consequent action on it were reported by The Nation and Pakistan Press International.
The same video was also posted here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. However, that incident is not related to the one that took place in Brazil.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the video posted by Syed Ali Haider is misleading due to its caption and the way the anchor links the Quetta hospital incident to that of the sexual assault in Brazil.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 9-18 August 2022 period using the search term, “دوران آپریشن ڈاکٹر کی مریضہ کیساتھ حرکتیں کرنے کی ویڈیو بے شرمی کی انتہا [A video showing a doctor engaged in indecent acts with a patient during a operation is the height of shamelessness.]”
The search turned up one Facebook post, with 443 interactions. Soch Fact Check also found that the video was shared here, here, here, here, and here.
Moreover, Facebook pages ‘SBU TV Shah Jahan Bizenjo’ and ‘TehQeeQ News Official’ posted the same video but with captions that clarify that the video is not from Pakistan. Mian Imran Arshad also posted a vlog with correct information but a misleading caption.
Conclusion: The video is not from Quetta’s Heart and General Hospital — or Pakistan for that matter — but from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, where the accused anaesthesiologist was identified, sacked, and arrested. The clip of the protesting patient, however, is from Quetta but it has no link to the viral video from Brazil.