At 1500 local time, Ankara, an ambulance drive barricaded himself inside his ambulance in front of the Turkish Health Ministry in Ankara. He told press that he “did not want to hurt anyone”, but wanted to speak with Health Minister Koca.
The ambulance driver apparently was not able to admit a cancer patient he was transporting for over three hours, while the patient writhed in pain. He told press: “I am doing it to defend patient rights. I carried the oncology patient, went from hospital to hospital for 3 hours, I could not find a place to leave the patient. I want the minister of health to come”
When police attempted to remove the man at 1515, the man threatened to blow up the oxygen canisters in the ambulance if he was approached again, prompting an evacuation of the facility and the Ankara Fire Department to surround the ambulance.
At 0840, the man was peacefully removed from the ambulance and arrested. Turkish press said that if the cancer patient was terminally ill, physicians may have refused care. However, Turkey has been plagued with long hospital wait lines since the Turks have been moving away from the tradition of terminally I’ll people passing at home with their families. Traditionally, women usually stayed home with ill family members and leased their passing, but Turkeys medical system has not modernized as quickly as their workforce and social needs, according to the Turkish Medical Association (TMA).
