Report: Baghdad Surgeons Amputating Without Anesthetics

Fox News ^ | 4-5-03 | FNC/AP

[cgk]

AMMAN, Jordan

[cgk]

Searched, didn't see it posted. I can't imagine what these poor people are going through being amputated without anesthesia, or with something akin to an aspirin.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Nothing new........move along

[PoisedWoman]

yes, this is tragic. Why didn't Saddam stock hospitals with necessary meds with some of the billions he spent on his palaces? I hope we can get truckloads of necessary supplies to Baghdad ASAP.

[T'wit]

Probably written by a cub journalist in his basement in New Jersey.

[SevenDaysInMay]

And this includes POWs, after beatings and mutilations without anesthetics.

[snooker]

I am sure Saddam has plenty in his bunkers. I why he didn't drop some off at the hospital while he was strolling around yesterday.

[Mister Baredog]

So why don't we air drop some boxes of morphine out the anus of a C-130?

Do you want to drug the whole city?(humor)

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

This is actually quite believable. Ketamine can be used for this purpose. It would make sense that supplies of many key medicines might be running short.

I guess if it were me undergoing the operation I'd ask for ether. Ether is still an effective anesthetic and isn't in common use mainly because it is flammable and explosive. But it's incredibly cheap and is probably produced from a petroleum distallation process, and is used for industrial purposes, so it ought to be around. I would accept the risk of being blown up verusus having to undergo an amputation with just ketamine.

Amputations without anesthesia were supposed to have gone out in the 1860's.

[cgk]

Yep. I read that the Iraqi lawyer who gave our troops the location/info about Pfc Lynch, overheard the monsters who were holding her discussing the possibility they might need to amputate her leg. Thank God they got her out before she had to go through the above.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

The Brits found a huge warehouse near Basrah, held by the Ba'ath Party,that was full of enough medical supplies to care for 10,000 children. Saddam has been commandeering medical supplies and food, meant for the citizens, for years.If Saddam and his regime had any humanity-they would be allowing the most critically injured to be taken out to the US field hospitals,under the auspices of the Red Crescent or Red Cross. This is a grotesque propaganda stunt,another form of Saddam's child torture.I can't wait to see his head on a stick.

[Dog Gone]

The Iraqis have been amputating tongues and genitals without anesthetic just this week in Baghdad, according to the London Times.

[MississippiMan]

I wonder if they read the article from yesterday, telling how TRUCKLOADS of medicine were refused at the Jordanian border into Iraq--they were told to tell Jordan they couldn't accept medicine. What they needed was for Jordan to "condemn the aggressors."

MM

[AmericanVictory]

Saddam's sons could forgo their parties and supply the drugs to the hospitals. In fact how do you tell the hospitals from their torture chambers, where they regularly amputate without drugs?

[Eva]

I read in another article that we had found that medicines has been cached in locked storage cabinets to be used for only special patients.

[PoisedWoman]

Amputations without anesthesia were supposed to have gone out in the 1860's

Not in Afghanistan and other Islamofascist areas where public amputations take place.

[LibKill]

Do you want to drug the whole city?(humor)

Wait a minute. Let's suppose we DID drug the whole city.

Our guys could do a walk-over, relieving the stoners of their weapons. By the time the Iraqis woke up it would all be over.

[ValenB4]

I had a preceptorship for med school at a center where a lot of immigrants go. I met an Arabic translator from Iraq. He was originally from Basra and he got out two years ago. He said that in the entire city there was only one CT scanner (20+ years old) that would have a 4 month waiting list for someone to get to use it.