Sabbagh said that, as he had been doing his rounds of the emergency ward Monday evening, a young man approached him and said, “Do I need to commit a crime to get my dad out of the room?”

Sabbagh replied that the man’s father would have to remain in hospital until the results of medical tests were released. “As I was speaking, he hit my left arm hard. I said, ‘How can you lay a hand on me?’ I shouted to security, ‘Remove him now!’”

“Before I even finished the sentence, there were punches from behind, like a hundred kilos hitting my head. I was thrown 2 or 3 meters, I temporarily lost consciousness, I couldn’t see properly.

“When I woke, another punch came on my right ear and face. It shook my whole body,” he said. “Then [security] removed [the son], but the damage was already done.”