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Police drag doctor from dying daughter’s bedside

Dr Rashid Abbasi refused to leave his daughter after hospital staff said they had decided to remove her life support.

UK police bodycam footage has emerged, showing officers dragging the father of a dying child away from her hospital bedside.

Respiratory expert Dr Rashid Abbasi has worked in the UK’s National Health Service for more than 30 years. His wife Aliya is also a doctor.

The couple’s six-year-old daughter Zainab was suffering from respiratory problems and a rare genetic disease.

Hospital doctors said nothing more could be done and she should be allowed to die, but the couple say they wanted the hospital to try a treatment they believed would help. The hospital refused, and the parents were told Zainab would have to be taken off life support.

The parents went to sit by their daughter’s bedside, and a while later, police entered, having been called to the hospital, which cannot be named due to an ongoing legal case.

Four officers approached the couple and asked Dr Abbasi to leave the room.

Dr Abbasi refused to leave and continued holding his daughter’s hand.

After a few minutes of talking, officers tried to remove him by force, dragging both parents away.

The incident took place in August 2019, but the footage has been released now as part of a legal case brought by the parents against Northumbria police.

Six-year-old Zainab died in September 2019, three days before a court hearing on whether the hospital should be allowed to take her off the ventilator.

This report was produced and edited by Al Jazeera NewsFeed’s Hassan Ghani.