Article 20411 of alt.conspiracy: Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy,alt.activism,alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.individualism,alt.censorship,talk.politics.misc,misc.headlines,soc.culture.usa Subject: Part 17, Within America's Soul, Hitler is Victorious Message-ID: <1993Feb12.143239.10745@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> Followup-To: alt.conspiracy Keywords: Within America's Soul, Hitler is Victorious Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU Organization: UVA. FREE Public Access UNIX! Lines: 152 From: "ISRAEL'S WAR IN LEBANON: EYEWITNESS CHRONICLES OF THE INVASION & OCCUPATION, Compiled and edited by Franklin Lamb, 1984 Publisher and sole distributor: Spokesman for the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Bertrand Russell House, Gamble St., Nottingham, England NG7 4ET. Transcribed with permission. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DR. MADS GILBERT, Physician, Norway ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUITE OFTEN, OPERATIONS HAD TO BE CANCELLED BECAUSE INSTRUMENTS COULD NOT BE PROPERLY WASHED BETWEEN OPERATIONS ... WOUND AND BONE INFECTIONS WERE EXTREMELY COMMON AND IN SOME CASES WE DISCOVERED LARGE AMOUNTS OF WORMS IN GANGRENOUS WOUNDS. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I will testify about the conditions and problems for patients and medical staff in West Beirut during this summer. I saw eight different medical centres or hospitals ranging from the American University Hospital to small underground first-aid stations in garages. Most of my working time I spent at the provisional La Hout Medical Centre located in the Near East School of Theology. This hospital was run in cooperation between Lebanese, Palestinian and European medical workers, headed and supervised by a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee organising the health and social work in West Beirut. The main problems in the medical work were all directly or indirectly caused by two factors: the systematic bombing and shelling by the Israeli military forces; and a special method of warfare applied by the same military forces: the blockade or siege of West Beirut. To sum up, the main problems in the medical work were: 1. the number and severity of injured people; 2. the insufficient capacity of the medical system; 3. the deficiencies, due to the siege, of water, energy and various medical equipment,etc.; 4. the insufficient security both for patients and staff; and 5. the fading infrastructure of the town, affecting the maintenance, public services such as garbage emptying and street cleaning, posing serious threats to hygiene. Let me comment briefly on each of these points: first to the patients, or to put it more precisely: the constant flow of injuries produced by the Israeli military actions. All sorts of injuries were present, from serious blast or fragmentation injury commonly seen, to minor cases. Some 80 percent were civilians, the ratio between soldier and civilian casualties being as low as 1 to 30 based on my own counting. The injuries often demanded prompt reanimation and surgical action, as was the case with many traumatic amputations. At La Hout, the mixed Arab-European medical teams performed together some 270-300 major and minor surgical procedures from the end of June to the end of August. The capacity of the medical system of West Beirut was reduced overall mainly as a result of the Israeli destruction of hospitals. Provisional solutions had to be found. One example was the `Palladium medical station', located in a cinema building staffed by Palestinians and a Danish nurse, poorly equipped but functioning and indeed taking its share of the patients; or the third basement floor at La Hout medical centre which served as a sheltered ward: or the operating theatre at the same provisional hospital, located in the underground sound studio of this theological school. It was equipped with two operating tables and basic surgical and anaesthetic items. The war destroyed the infrastructure of the town. In every street, garbage was collected and burned, proving both the dangers of epidemic diseases but also the very strong discipline and dignity of the population -- and the town succeeded in keeping major epidemics away. I wil turn to the consequences of the war of siege waged by the Israelis against the people of West Beirut. The areas of deficiencies in the medical field due to the siege can be summed up in six points: 1. lack of water; 2. lack of energy -- both electricity and fuel; 3. lack of different sorts of medical equipment such as instruments, disposable materials, antibiotics, drugs, etc.; 4. lack of blood and blood products; 5. lack of adequate nutritional source for patients; 6. lack of medical staff; To illustrate some of the important shortages, let me start with the water. Due to the shutting of the pumping station in East Beirut, the population of West Beirut was exposed to a number of threats: They had to rely on improper sources of water such as wells formed in bomb craters. These were used both for drinking water, personal hygiene and laundry. In other areas, tanked water was distributed to a limited extent, and in some cases, reservoirs were installed by UNICEF in the Haret Hriek first-aid station. The lack of running water not only hastens the development of epidemic diseases, it also makes the medical work extremely difficult. Quite often, operations had to be cancelled because instruments could not be properly washed between operations. This delayed treatment. The sheets and dressings of the patients were hard to keep clean. Wound and bone infections were extremely common, and in some few cases we even discovered large amounts of worms in gangrenous wounds. Infected wounds needed daily and time-consuming attention with lancing and thorough cleaning to have a chance to heal properly. However, in spite of blockade and bombing, the responsible Palestinian and Lebanese authorities organised the search for other water sources; for example, drilling wells straight through the pavement outside La Hout. The Israeli blockade of power supplies was long-lasting and forced us to rely on generators delivering often marginal amounts of energy. These machines were sensitive to both bombing and fuel shortage. But with a permanent well and two generators outside, medical work could still continue at La Hout as with most of the other institutions. Paying attention to the shortages, one had to accept a conventional light bulb even for major surgery or even a torch when generators failed in the middle of and operation. Lack of medical equipment was another feature of the siege, forcing us to turn to methods of treatment inferior to modern medicine. Complicated fractures which should have been externally fixed, had to be plastered, often leading to disastrous results for the long-term function of the limb. Lack of disposable materials forced the staff to reuse items such as syringes and gloves. Let me make one thing quite clear at this point: it may appear at this hearing that medical services were run by foreigners during the war. In fact, the main burdens and responsibilities were taken by our numerous and courageous Palestinian and Lebanese health workers, many of them being unable to be witnesses at this hearing due to work, imprisonment or even death. It was thanks to those people that West Beirut never was left without some medical services. Let me conclude by summing up the main medical consequences of the Israeli siege of West Beirut. It caused: delayed primary treatment of injuries; often insufficient surgery; high mortality before and during surgery; a high incidence of post-operation infections; a high incidence of major surgical complications; malnutrition of several patient groups; altogether an unnecessarily high mortality and morbidity, adding to the damage already done to humans by the military attacks themselves. (to be continued) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The story of these "crimes against humanity" has been carefully suppressed by the American Mass Media, which has always hypocritically exhorted us to: "Never again permit another holocaust!" Let us replace their hypocrisy with sincerity by exposing the holocaust of `82 and the holocaust of `91 to the TV-deluded consciousness of the American masses. Please post the episodes of this ongoing series to computer bulletin boards, and post hardcopies in public places, both on and off campus. Dial-in numbers of BBSs can be found in the Usenet newsgroup "alt.bbs.lists" John DiNardo