medical malfeasance

As many of you know one of my two clients at Guantanamo has serious health issues. He suffers from Hepatitis B and TB, he now also suffers from high blood pressure and constant headaches. He has received little help for his conditions and has been accused of causing his own health problems because he will not allow the medical staff that has abused and ignored him all these years to do a biopsy on his liver (as an aside the medical staff told him that the biopsy could result in severe and permanent injury). Daphne Eviatar has reported on medical/ethical issues in a couple of good articles at the Washington Independent. This first one discusses the possibility that the Gitmo detainees were used for psychological experiments. It is a disturbing account but one that my own investigation has shown to have existed in relation not only to my client with health problems but other men at the base as well. My client is greatly concerned about his medical problems and in discussions with the medical staff he has been repeatedly alarmed by the doctors and nurses of possible illnesses he could be suffering from. At one point he was told he probably has AIDS and another time he was told that his headaches are probably a sign that he has a brain tumor. This cruelty is of course beyond the pale but it also points to the techniques used by the medical staff to manipulate the prisoners and add to their sense of total helplessness. This other article discusses the concealment by the defense department of detainee deaths. This is another subject that I will be further exploring when my two clients are eventually released from the hell hole called Guantanamo. As I discussed in my article published in the ABA Litigation magazine a month or so ago...my Libyan client had the name of another detainee tacked on to his name in his early days at Gitmo. He said the man whose name he received had been in the cage next to him for awhile and then the man disappeared and the missing mans name was added to his name....one day I will find out what ever happened to that man. If you want to be even more appalled read some of the related stories of medical malfeasance at Gitmo as reported by the Washington Independent that are listed on the side of the two articles linked to above.