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