Enemy of Peace (EOP's)

One of the many challenges we face here at Bagram is the treatment of patients designated as an "Enemy of Peace" (EOP). This is the latest politically correct way to say "bad guy". These patients come to us along with the coalition troops who captured them. They are required to be guarded 24 hours a day. We have to take off any identifying information such as hospital badges when seeing the EOP's. The EOP must be blindfolded if they leave their room. The interpreters stay behind a curtain when communicating with them because they do not want to be seen by a "bad guy". It takes a while to get used to this as you might imagine.


The EOP's come to us with horrific injuries just like any other casualty of war. We are required to give them the exact same treatment as we would any other patient. We are told, "A patient is a patient is a patient, no matter what." They get a full resuscitation in the trauma bay, get a plethora of radiologic studies, undergo many operations, are monitored closely in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and eventually will make it to the ward where I will get to care for them. We tap into our extensive resources to treat them. One of my EOP patients has had brain surgery, eye surgery, and extensive orthopedic surgery on broken bones all while spending a week in the ICU. When these patients are ready to leave the hospital, they are discharged back to the soldiers that captured them. This is often a complicated process.


The Geneva Convention is often referred to when we talk about "rules of war". Because of the Geneva Convention, all prisoners of war are entitled to medical care. It seems crazy that a soldier is supposed to shoot the enemy and then do what they can to save that person's life. I don't understand how a soldier can do that. It's out of the realm of normal human experience to say the least. And, what we do here in treating the EOP's is also out of the ordinary. But, a patient is a patient is a patient, right?


Not exactly. We all do the best we can to separate it all out and provide good care. But, I think it is natural to wonder what the EOP's are thinking. Do they hate me because I am an American? Do they think that we hate them? I don't know. I do know that it is a daily struggle to provide medical care for EOP's. We have a young physical therapy assistant who is tasked each day to get our hospital patients up and moving. Here is this airmen in his early 20's helping a severely injured EOP walk again. That is a very tall order! We are asking a lot of him and all of our medical staff to treat these patients. Honestly, I am still not totally sure how I feel about it all.

By the way, the subject of my last post "A Dying Man" left our hospital. He's an Afghan and it was not right for him to spend his remaining days in an American military hospital. I watched him get loaded into the ambulance to take him away. I hope he dies with dignity.