Spanish nurse beaten after protecting patient from her own son during appointment

Healthcare workers can spend decades caring for patients without ever expecting violence to become part of the job. But for one nurse in Ciudad Real that all change and has now been left with injuries and a restraining order after stepping in to protect a woman being attacked during a consultation.

The nurse, who has 35 years of professional experience, was working at a health centre in Agudo on Friday when the patient’s son turned on his mother. She intervened, and the violence was then directed at her. The incident has left the nurse injured and raised fresh concerns over the protection available to healthcare staff when violence erupts inside a consultation room.

Violence erupts during consultation

The incident happened at around 11:00am while the nurse was treating a female patient. The woman’s son, who was also a patient of the nurse, arrived and sat beside his mother. During the appointment, the nurse reminded him that he needed to renew his monthly medication, while his mother suggested that he go to the pharmacy to order it.

According to nursing union SATSE, the man became verbally aggressive towards his mother. The nurse told him not to speak to her that way. He then punched his mother in the head and face, injuring her lip and nose, before knocking her to the floor and kicking her while she curled up to protect herself. The nurse stepped between them to try to stop the attack.

The nurse becomes a second victim

The man then attacked her with punches and kicks, leaving her temporarily dazed. She fell against the consultation table before other people at the health centre intervened and restrained him. The Guardia Civil attended the centre after the assault.

The nurse was left with bruising to one eye, her chin, collarbone, both arms and both legs and was clearly shaken up over the incident. She later reported the man and obtained a restraining order against him.

35 years without an attack

The nurse has worked in healthcare for 35 years and said this was the first incident of this nature she had experienced during her career. Her long experience puts the incident into perspective: she had not been attacked during a routine disagreement with a patient. She became involved after seeing a woman in her care being beaten.

SATSE has described the assault as “intolerable” and called for stronger measures to protect healthcare professionals from physical and verbal attacks. The union wants the Castilla-La Mancha Health Service (SESCAM) to improve prevention and security measures in health centres.

Attacks on healthcare workers

The incident comes against a much larger problem for healthcare staff in Spain. The Health Ministry recorded 18,563 attacks against workers in the public health system during 2025, an increase of 8.74 per cent compared with the previous year. Around half of the reported incidents took place in primary care, where staff deal directly with patients and relatives. 

The figures include insults, threats, intimidation and physical attacks. The Agudo case shows how quickly a situation can turn dangerous inside a health centre. The nurse was not the person being confronted when the incident began. She became involved trying to defend her patient from the attacker and then became a victim herself.

Calls for better protection

SATSE is demanding stronger safeguards for healthcare professionals following the assault. The union says staff should be able to treat patients without facing aggression from patients or relatives and wants measures that can prevent incidents and protect workers when they do occur.  For the nurse involved, the consequences have gone beyond one violent episode.

After 35 years in the profession without experiencing an assault like this, she has been left with injuries, police involvement and legal protection after trying to defend a patient. The woman she was treating also suffered injuries. What began as an appointment about medication ended with a Guardia Civil intervention and a restraining order, leaving two women affected by violence inside a place where one had gone to provide healthcare and the other had gone to receive it.