Guantanamo prisoner describes alleged botched medical procedures

[struggle4progress]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico

A detainee at Guantanamo Bay is refusing a heart procedure, because he says doctors there have botched operations on other prisoners.

The allegations were made through the man's attorney, who spoke to him in a rare phone call, monitored by the military. The attorney says his client, a multimillionaire Pakistani businessman, believes two prisoners lost their vocal cords after routine tonsillectomies. He claims another prisoner lost part of his leg because a surgical sponge was left in him and became infected.

The base commander calls the allegations "absolutely false" and says the medical staff at Guantanamo is "dedicated to saving the lives and improving the health of the detainees." ..

http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5716881&nav=0nqx

[iamjoy]

1. OK - I'm Skeptical

I find it hard to believe a doctor would deliberately botch a medical procedure, even on a patient he believed to be a terrorist. And if he wanted to botch it, an OD of anesthesia would be far more effective, no?

OTOH - if the lowest caliber doctors get assigned to the detainees, it is easy to see how mistakes could be frequent.

[Frances]

2. I seem to remember some pretty bad mishaps

at Bethesda Naval Hospital when I lived in Maryland. I'm guessing it was about 20 years ago, but Bethesda Naval was supposed to be a good military hospital.

[AlienGirl]

3. An OD would only be more effective if the intent was to kill

There are many reasons for the operations to be "botched on purpose" other than to kill. Studying the infection, maybe. Or making sure that a high-value prisoner is in enough pain from a "legitimate procedure" that pain relief is a profound incentive to provide information (hey, it's not *technically* torture!). I don't find it hard to believe at all.

Tucker

[Canuckistanian]

4. I'd like to know where the AMA stands on this

Are the doctors assigned to the detainees competent and dispassionate about their patients?

Or is there a "look the other way" attitude about prisoners of war?

[struggle4progress]

5. Lawyers try to stop planned medical procedure on Guantanamo detainee's heart

The Associated PressPublished: November 15, 2006

... Saifullah A. Paracha, a 69-year-old multimillionaire businessman from Karachi, Pakistan, already had one heart attack while in U.S. custody and in recent days has suffered chest pains, his lawyers said. Doctors plan to perform a cardiac catheterization on Paracha this month at the isolated Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in southeast Cuba.

Gaillard T. Hunt, one of Paracha's attorneys, asked a federal court in Washington Tuesday to block it, saying Guantanamo lacks the medical facilities for the procedure and sufficient backup in case anything goes wrong ...

Transferring Paracha to a hospital in the United States could present legal complications for the Bush administration, which has maintained that because the Guantanamo detainees were picked up overseas and are being held on foreign land, they may be detained indefinitely without charges or trial. A new law strips foreign "enemy combatants" held anywhere by the United States of their right to contest their detention in court. That law is being challenged ...

Katznelson found Paracha chained to a bed at the base hospital when he visited Guantanamo on Nov. 7 and 9 ...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/15/news/CB_Guantanamo_Heart_Procedure.php?page=1