The navy has rushed a surgical group to Guantánamo Bay to probably conduct emergency backbone surgical procedure on an Iraqi prisoner who has undergone a number of operations on the base in Cuba, in accordance with legal professionals accustomed to the case.
Legal professionals for the prisoner, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who’s in his 60s, argue that the small base hospital will not be correctly geared up for such a fragile surgical procedure, and suggest that he be medically evacuated.
Pentagon officers declined to touch upon what legal professionals describe as a sudden deterioration of the backbone of Mr. Hadi, together with claims in authorized filings that the neurosurgeon who has dealt with his case is unable to conduct this newest surgical procedure as a result of he has Covid-19.
Nor would they affirm claims within the filings {that a} CT scanner wanted for preoperative imaging is damaged. The navy had additionally been leasing a magnetic imaging gadget for a greater have a look at the backbone of Mr. Hadi, whose disc illness has progressed throughout his years in U.S. navy custody — however earlier authorized filings famous that the M.R.I. machine had been broken throughout transport to Guantánamo Bay and wanted to get replaced.
“Performing a surgical procedure with out sufficient diagnostic testing and imaging is, merely put, malpractice,” the legal professionals mentioned in a two-page discover filed with Mr. Hadi’s navy decide on Nov. 10.
It solid the Navy hospital at Guantánamo Bay as functioning “in substandard circumstances” and mentioned the prisoner can be higher cared for on the Walter Reed navy hospital outdoors Washington, D.C., or on the Landstuhl Regional Medical Heart, a U.S. navy facility in Germany that treats battlefield evacuees. Guantánamo’s hospital is usually not geared up to deal with advanced circumstances and, excluding life-threatening emergencies, routinely airlifts sufferers to the US for care.
By regulation, the 35 males held prisoner there are forbidden from coming into the US.
Mr. Hadi has pleaded responsible to committing battle crimes in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004 as a frontline commander of Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents in a deal that postponed his sentencing till 2024, permitting time for his legal professionals and different U.S. officers discover a nation to supply him resettlement and supply him with well being care.
There’s little his decide, Air Power Lt. Col. Mark F. Rosenow, can do, except for asking for normal briefings from the navy on his care and situation. Judges on the battle court docket haven’t any authority to intervene within the functioning of the jail, aside from suspending proceedings or dismissing expenses as a treatment for presidency wrongdoing or passivity.
Lt. Col. Cesar H. Santiago, a Pentagon spokesman for Guantánamo coverage, invoked “privateness issues” and declined to verify the legal professionals’ accounts. With out specifying at what stage, he mentioned the Protection Division “is intently monitoring the state of affairs.”
Mr. Hadi, who says his actual identify is Nashwan al-Tamir, suffers from degenerative spinal illness that was deemed acute in 2017 when guards found him incontinent in his cell. The Pentagon rushed a neurosurgical group to the bottom earlier than the arrival of Hurricane Irma for the primary of 5 spine-related surgical procedures in 9 months — 4 on his backbone and one to deal with a life-threatening blood clot that adopted a kind of operations.
Mr. Hadi now depends on a wheelchair and a walker contained in the jail, and a padded geriatric chair for help in court docket. Guards additionally hold a hospital mattress contained in the courtroom the place he has slept when heavy painkillers triggered him to nod off.
Earlier this yr, docs really helpful he endure a fifth operation on his backbone. In June, the chief medical officer evaluating detainee well being care at Guantánamo, Capt. Corry Kucik of the Navy, testified that the bottom hospital amenities lacked sufficient amenities and expertise to reliably conduct the operation, and that some surgeons won’t need to threat their license doing it.