Hard to tell from the description what exactly happened. And where was the flight’s captain during the encounter? If the captain called for assistance, I don’t have much sympathy for the uncooperative tourist, retired doctor or not.
Looks like the chief stewardess called for help.
My guess is the doctor insisted on carrying aboard a piece of luggage that was really too big for overhead use. He repeatedly banged it around in different ways to get it into the bin, knocking other people’s stuff around and holding up the queue. He probably refused help and wouldn’t let staff store it somewhere else aboard the aircraft as, especially if the packets were he and his wife’s medication, he feared theft. The situation spirals out from there.