Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 12 Sep: A pall of silent fear descended upon the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) premises in Naharlagun, following the brutal assault on two doctors and the subsequent vitriolic media campaign against the TRIHMS and the doctor community on social media.
The anguished faces of the TRIHMS administrators, doctor community, nurses, and other supporting medical staff revealed that they were truly traumatized by the incident, and are now distressed and demotivated.
Two doctors – Dr Arvind Pusha and Dr Tam Tariang – who were attending their duties on the third floor of the hospital (ENT ward), were attacked by an assaulter, identified as Nabam Mangha, using an iron rod, inflicting heavy injuries on both the junior and senior resident doctors. Mangha was subsequently apprehended by the police from the spot.
In a press conference on Friday, TRIHMS Deputy Medical Superintendent (DMS) Dr Wangju Sumnyan expressed deep anguish over the assault on the doctors and the vitriolic media campaign against the hospital and the doctor community as whole.
“Today we would like to share our side of the story. We are deeply anguished and distressed to inform about yesterday’s incident, during which two of our sincere health professionals were physically assaulted by a patient’s attendant” the DMS said.
He reiterated that the TRIHMS is committed to deliver better health services and would put extra efforts to improve its services. Reaching out to common people to clear the confusion built over the incident, Dr Sumnyan reassured that normal services at the hospital would continue despite the agitation by the doctor fraternity and the medical staff.
“We are planning to strengthen our public relations and have decided to provide a helpdesk to address the needy patients, and putting up redressal or complaint box with mobile numbers given, so that the public can lodge complaint anonymously about the issue,” he said.
He added that the TRIHMS’ 70 security personnel are not sufficient to manage security of the big campus and various sections, and urged the state government to create more posts of security guards – at least around 150.
He also sought cooperation from the media fraternity in bridging the mistrust between the common public and the TRIHMS authorities and dispelling the acrimonious atmosphere built over the institution due to misinformation over the state’s medical college after the incident.
Highlighting the incident that occurred to a 17-year-old female patient, Nabam Yayum, TRIHMS Surgery Department Assistant Professor Dr Likha Raju claimed that the patient came with a diagnosis of sentinel piles. He said that the patient had been properly counselled that surgical intervention was optional as the disease can be treated non-operatively. “However, at the patient’s persistent requests, a surgical removal of the sentinel pile was performed on 4 September, 2025,” Dr Raju claimed.
He went on to claim that the operation was uneventful, and the immediate post-operative recovery was smooth.
“Subsequently, during the course of post-operative management, the patient was administered tranexamic acid. This injection is given to stop bleeding. Immediately after the injection, she developed breathing difficulty, suggestive of an adverse drug reaction.”
He said that the hospital promptly recognized the adverse drug reaction and initiated all necessary emergency management protocols in accordance with standard medical guidelines and shifted the patient to the ICU promptly for further intensive management.
“The patient is recovering steadily in the ICU under the department of anaesthesiology. Departments comprising general surgery, cardiology, neurology, radiology and ophthalmology have evaluated the patient and they are regularly monitoring the patient,” he added.
TRIHMS Faculty Association president Dr Rinchin D Megeji clarified that the decision to announce the 48-hour shutdown of hospital services was taken over the vitriolic campaign against the TRIHMS and its employees. Earlier, the decision was taken solely by the TRIHMS’ employees; however, the APDA, the IMA Arunachal branch, and all private establishments expressed solidarity with the TRIHMS’ employees in the wake of the brutal attack on its doctors, and joined the agitation.
Dr Megeji informed that non-APST doctors are afraid of working at the TRIHMS after the fear psychosis created in the hospital. “Through this agitation we want to send a clear message to the government and the common people that we don’t give wrong treatment here. There is something called complication and something called side-effects” Dr Megeji said.
“We have to work together to dispel this fear psychosis. The TRIHMS has so far facilitated over 21,000 deliveries, out of which only nine deaths were reported; six of these deaths were related to Covid-19 cases. Our mortality rate is way below the national average,” he added.
The TRIHMS assured the public that the institution maintains the highest standards of patient safety, and every effort is made to ensure quality care.