AN elderly patient was hit over the head with a fire extinguisher as he lay in bed recovering from an operation at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Another patient, who is now under police guard at the hospital, is believed to have attacked the 81-year-old man as he was recovering from a toe amputation.

The grandfather, a diabetic, who had been expected to be discharged from hospital later that day, is now in the hospital’s high dependency unit.

The attack in Ward E3, a surgical ward, left him with a fractured skull, a broken cheekbone and swelling and bleeding on his brain.

The attack also broke his arm in two places when he was hit a second time and lifted his arm to defend himself.

A family friend of the victim, who asked to remain anonymous, said a man who was being treated for alcohol withdrawal on the same ward, started swinging a fire extinguisher at three female nurses at about 1.40am on Monday.

She said the nurses locked themselves in an office and called security, while the man is believed to have moved into a side bay, where the victim was sleeping.

It is also understood that he attempted to hit two other patients, as well as letting off the fire extinguisher in a ward and using it to smash in a door.

Security staff detained the 53-year-old minutes after staff raised the alarm and police arrested him on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

He has been moved to a different ward.

The family friend said of the 81-year-old victim: “He just clobbered him with the extinguisher on his head.

“He went to the next bed where there was a man recovering from being beaten and he got clobbered, but not as hard, and he pushed him away.

“He then went to the corner bed where there was another man, but he managed to pick up a chair and defend himself.

“Then he went out of the bay and that’s when security arrived.

“The three of them could have been killed.”

Hospital trust chief executive Antony Sumara said there would be an investigation.

He said: “We are obviously concerned that a patient in our hospital suffered that sort of attack. That is very unpleasant for the man and his family.

“Our first thoughts are for the patient and his family and also for our staff, who were very distressed at the time.”

Det Chief Insp Sarah Jackson said it was an isolated incident.

She added: “Understandably, the staff and patients who witnessed this violent episode are clearly upset, not least the family of the man who sustained a nasty head injury.

“We have a lot of witnesses on the ward we need to speak to and those inquiries will continue over the next few days.”