Patrick Dodd and Friends: The Soap Box

Testimony of Spc. Brandon Neely








 



Specialist Brandon Neely

 



On December 4, 2008, Specialist Brandon Neely approached CSHRA with testimony he wished to contribute to the Guantánamo Testimonials Project. He believed that insufficient attention had been paid to "the hell that went on at Camp X-Ray." He would be in a position to know, as he arrived in Guantánamo while the cages of Camp X-Ray were still being welded, and escorted the second detainee to hit the prison grounds. In this interview, Specialist Neely provides testimony of the arrival of the detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, possible isolation regime [...]

Arrogance, Abuse, Fraud, Medical Malpractice:
How Some Physicians Beg for Law Suites
   Physicians and mass media often depict patients and their lawyers who file lawsuits against Doctors as greedy, money-grubbing opportunist. 1 It turns out this is more projection than reality. A 1990 study by Harvard researchers of 31,000 medical records subjected to evaluation by practicing doctors and nurses, “found that doctors were injuring one out of every 25 patients (latter studies put that figure closer to one out of every seven patients), and that only 4 percent of these injured patients sued.” 2 Another Harvard study of 1,452 malpractice lawsuits found that more than 90 percent of the claims evidence supported medical injury and 25 percent of the time the patient died, 60% of these injuries resulted from physician wrongdoing. The study also found when “baseless” malpractice suits were brought they were “efficiently thrown out.” Only 145 of 515 patients [...]

V.A. Fails to Diagnose and Treat Vets to Save Money: Implications for Health Care Reform?

By MC Kean

V.A. Fails to Diagnose and Treat Vets to Save Money: Implications for Health Care ReformNo matter what side of health care reform you are on, none of us would like our physician to NOT tell us about a treatable condition, just to save the government money. V.A. physicians have been ordered not to diagnose or treat “low priority” veterans for many conditions. I am all for single payer health care, but we should be honest. The V.A., like private health care is a socially stratified system. All Veterans do not all get the same care. Veterans who have managed to get a service connected designation (many who should get this classification do not), retired officers and others who have been anointed with the classification of deserving get the medical they need. Some veterans get no care at all. Other veterans, who qualify for care, but are considered, “low priority”, are not getting [...]

Arrogance, Abuse, Fraud, Medical Malpractice:
How Some Physicians Beg for Law Suites
 
  
Physicians and mass media often depict patients and their lawyers who file lawsuits against Doctors as greedy, money-grubbing opportunist. 1 It turns out this is more projection than reality. A 1990 study by Harvard researchers of 31,000 medical records subjected to evaluation by practicing doctors and nurses, “found that doctors were injuring one out of every 25 patients (latter studies put that figure closer to one out of every seven patients), and that only 4 percent of these injured patients sued.” 2 Another Harvard study of 1,452 malpractice lawsuits found that more than 90 percent of the claims evidence supported medical injury and 25 percent of the time the patient died, 60% of these injuries resulted from physician wrongdoing. The study also found when “baseless” malpractice suits were brought they were “efficiently thrown out.” Only 145 of [...]

If a Tree Falls:
If a Patient is Assaulted Under Anesthesia
Few patients realize American medicine has a long history and extensive current practice of violating anesthetized patients rights. This is done in a multitude of ways. One is Ghost surgeries, where a patient is told one person will be performing the procedure, but the operation is literally subcontracted out (with kickback and all) to another surgeon and the surgeon you thought was operating has moved on to a higher paying patient/procedure. Other times your surgery is handed over to interns and residents to whom you have never been introduced. The physician the patient was told would be performing the procedure may be merely supervising, or may have moved on to the next case and only be available by phone in the case of an emergency. Once under anesthesia for surgery or colonoscopies physicians often take the opportunity to do things to patients to which they did not consent, such as teams of interns, residents, [...]