A man who shattered glass panes at Mater Dei Hospital's casualty department after having been kept waiting, was taken to court on Monday and denied bail.

Tripoli-born Adnan Saed, 26 had injured his hand in Paceville and was taken to hospital in an ambulance early on Friday, the court was told. He appeared to have been drunk at the time.

Mr Saed was bleeding profusely and began to complain angrily after being told he would have to wait to be treated, prosecuting Inspector Jonathan Ransley told the court.

The incident might not have escalated further had some temporary measure been taken immediately to stop the blood loss, the Inspector added. 

He said the man refusing to calm down even when two police officers intervened. He ultimately smashed his fist against a window and door pane at the reception area, shattering the glass.

On Monday, Mr Saed pleaded not guilty to willful damage to hospital property, threats to two police constables, uttering obscene language in public, disturbing the public peace and having been drunk in public.

“He was literally out of his mind with the great amount of blood flowing from his wound. He hardly knew what he was doing,” defence lawyer Martha Mifsud said, requesting bail.

“He was literally fighting for his life. He had a perfectly clean criminal record. This was an unfortunate incident,” Dr Mifsud went on.

However, the prosecution objected to the request on the grounds that the accused appeared to have no fixed address, telling the police that he lived at ‘Bugibba’ while during the hearing he presented an address of a female friend at Valletta.

Magistrate Rachel Montebello, denied bail since it was not convinced that the man did have a fixed address where he could be notified pending the proceedings.