Chinese doctor killer given life sentence

A Chinese court on Wednesday sentenced an 18-year-old man to life in prison for murdering his doctor in one of the number of hospital attacks to have plagued China's medical sector recently.

The man surnamed Qi, dissatisfied about his nose surgery, battered Sun Dongtao with an iron bar in February 2014, the intermediate people's court of Qiqihar City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province said in its verdict.

The court described the attack as a heinous crime with grave social impact but withheld the death penalty as Qi was a minor when he committed the crime.

Qi did not immediately appeal the verdict.

China has seen a string of attacks on medical staff amid strained patient-doctor relations. Chinese patients accuse doctors of rushing consultations and prescribing excessive medicines, while doctors complain about overwork, low pay and being frequently misunderstood by patients.

In May, a man was executed for fatally stabbing one doctor and wounding two others in east China's Wenling City in a 2013 attack that also arose from a disputed nose surgery.

Earlier this year, a doctor and a patient from the central province of Henan died after falling into a hospital elevator shaft following a brawl. Endi