Above photo: Qesser Zuhrah launched her hunger strike more than 40 days ago and has a family history of heart problems.
Doctors demanded an ambulance for a Palestine Action-linked prisoner on hunger strike experiencing chest pain.
An NHS doctor says she was “strangled” by police officers at a protest outside a British prison demanding an ambulance for a critically ill Palestine Action-linked prisoner on hunger strike.
Olivia Brandon, an Accident and Emergency doctor at a London hospital, told Middle East Eye that she was dragged by the hood of her coat by police, causing arterial compression and resulting in her losing consciousness.
She also reported that another doctor, Ayo Moiett, who had been repeatedly demanding that Bronzefield prison call an ambulance for prisoner Qesser Zuhrah, was arrested by two police officers after he declined to attend a “voluntary interview” following allegations that he had assaulted a prison officer.
Both doctors were among a group of supporters who waited outside HMP Bronzefield throughout the night on 17 December, demanding an ambulance for Zuhrah, who had been on hunger strike for over 46 days.
She is among six prisoners who launched hunger strikes over their treatment and the proscription of the direct action group.
The action has drawn comparisons with the 1981 hunger strike by Irish republican prisoners led by Bobby Sands in Northern Ireland.
The prisoners, all accused of involvement with Palestine Action before it was proscribed in July, will have been in jail for over a year by the time they stand trial. They are demanding immediate bail.
Zuhrah said she was suffering from severe pain in her chest, lower back and around her kidneys from around 5pm on Tuesday.
According to her friends, a nurse finally came to check her key bodily functions and conduct an ECG (electrocardiogram) test at around 12:47am.
Brandon said that the hospital refused to call an ambulance on the basis that the test results were normal.
“Anyone who has severe chest pain needs to go to hospital straight away,” Brandon told MEE.
When Brandon called the South East Coast Ambulance Service directly, she was informed that they could not send an ambulance as the prison told them they would turn it away.
NHS policy states that cases of chest pain “may require rapid assessment and/or urgent transport”.
It stipulates that ambulance response time “should be under 19 minutes”.
South East Coast Ambulance Service said in response to a request for comment that they “do not send an ambulance to attend a prison at the request of a third party but would instead work with the prison health team to establish if a response is required.
An HMP Bronzefield spokesperson said they could not comment on individual cases.
‘You will all be in seen in court one day’
Brandon emphasised that in cases of severe chest pain, normal test results do not rule out other causes. These can include a pulmonary embolism – a life-threatening clot in the vessels supplying the lungs, which Zuhrah is currently at high risk of.
Brandon added that the severe chest pain Zuhrah was experiencing could have also been caused by pneumonia.
“If they suspect pneumonia, you need a chest X-ray. If they suspect a clot, you need an urgent CT scan,” Brandon said.
According to Brandon, despite the nurse refusing to let Zuhrah see her results, she managed to glimpse the ECG monitor, which revealed a pulse rate of 127 beats per minute (BPM), indicating a very high heart rate.
The nurse also reportedly struggled to get a reading of Zuhrah’s blood pressure, which Brandon described as a “massive red flag”.
She explained that the combination of a very high heart rate and low blood pressure indicates that someone is going into shock.
In footage posted on X, Brandon can be seen banging on the prison door shouting: “You will all be seen in court one day.”
“Severe chest pain gets a hospital transfer… if I made the decisions you are making in my hospital, I would be fired and I would be prosecuted and I would go to jail.”
Begging For An Ambulance
James Smith, another NHS doctor, arrived at the prison to support Zuhrah at around 9am on Wednesday morning. By that time, a crowd of around 20 people had assembled outside the prison, including MP Zarah Sultana.
He said that at one point, one of the prison guards opened the door to enter the building, and the protesters followed her and proceeded to occupy the reception.
The prison staff then called the police, and shortly after, at least 10 police cars arrived at the scene.
The ambulance finally arrived to collect Zuhrah at around 2:30pm, so the group agreed to disperse and collect their litter.
Smith said that as the group were leaving, two police officers approached Moiett and asked if he could come to the police station for a “voluntary interview”, as the female police officer who opened the door to the prison reception had alleged that he had assaulted her.
“I witnessed that entire scene,” Smith said. “Dr Moiett had his hands in the air the entire time as they entered.
“He sat on the floor, was respectful, engaged the prison guards and articulated the demand for an ambulance, before getting up and leaving.
“I was inside the lobby with them. He did not touch a prison officer or a police officer at any time.”
According to Smith, the officers who approached Moiett were asked if he was being arrested. They said no.
“Legal advice was sought, and a decision was taken that Ayo wouldn’t go to the police station, at which point we are starting walking out together,” Smith said.
Then, the two police officers approached Moiett again, as the group tried to walk past them, and one of the officers said “don’t do this”.
“As we tried to walk past them, the two officers then grabbed him,” Smith said.
“The situation escalated very quickly, additional officers ran in…they then pulled Ayo back to one of the police cars and had him pressed with his chest against the police car, cuffed with his hands behind his back,” Smith told MEE.
Brandon said that she believed Moiett had been targeted because he is black, and that he “did the most out of anyone there to get Qesser an ambulance”.
“He was standing in front of the prison doors for hour after hour in the freezing cold, just begging them to get an ambulance,” Brandon told MEE.
‘I lost consciousness’
When the police tried to transfer Moiett to the police van, protesters started to sit down in the road.
When the group moved to block the van from leaving, police began dragging people off the road. Smith said he and Brandon were sitting in the road, with his hands around her bag straps, when the police dragged them on their backs along the tarmac.
“I heard my clothes rip, and my glasses were knocked from my face. People started to shout that Dr Olivia was being strangled,” Smith said, adding that a police officer accused him of strangling her.
Footage of the incident shows a police officer approaching Brandon and pulling her by her hood along the road, as she is heard making choking sounds.
“They dragged me several metres across the road by my hood. I was gagging and then I lost consciousness,” Brandon said.
She ended up going to hospital for a CT scan following the incident.
Surrey Police said in response to a request for comment that they have not received a complaint directly regarding the incident, but that they have referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct for their review.
The police said in a statement that officers arrested three people at the demonstration. These included a 29-year-old man accused of assault causing grievous bodily harm, a 28-year-old man accused of assault, and a 22-year-old woman accused of criminal damage.
