Dear Editor,
I am a Government Medical Officer designated as the Police Surgeon in the Guyana Police Force. My job is to determine the fitness of recruits, to take care of the general health of the staff of the Guyana Police Force, the fire service and the prison service. I also see prisoners in the Georgetown Prison and lock-up detainees whenever they are presented to me. I am not part of the command structure of the police force, ie I do not issue orders to the ranks or the officers of the force.
Having stated this, let me say that I am utterly dismayed by and concerned about the article ‘Doctor’s actions reveal a callous indifference beyond belief – GHRA’ published in the Kaieteur News dated November 10, 2009. The GHRA never sought my professional opinion on the patient whom I saw at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station on October 29, 2009, but mischievously resorted to capricious, spurious and slanderous allegations which I suspect were carefully crafted to satisfy some sordid or malicious intent. On the said day, I was called out by the police administration to see a patient about ten kilometers away from my home at 6 pm, a time very much outside my normal working hours. I readily agreed to go and see the patient. I would like to ask the GHRA whether acting beyond the call of duty is an act of callous indifference.
On arrival at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station, I saw two ranks in the inquiry area and introduced myself to them. After a short wait, I was presented with the said patient who was naked except for his head which was covered with a bag. At this point. I must point out to the GHRA that the bag “was not tightened at the neck with a string and that the patient was breathing comfortably.
The injured area was exposed and that was solely my concern and focus. On examining the area I concluded that the patient was suffering from 1st degree (superficial) burns of the genital area, upper thighs and lower buttocks (5-9%). I did not see any other “areas of brutality” as alleged by the GHRA, nor did I see any signs of dehydration as alleged by the GHRA. I did mention verbally that the patient should have been carried to the hospital. Again I ask the GHRA whether this is callous indifference. I had a stamped prescription which I had walked with in anticipation of any medication that needed to be prescribed and I did prescribe antibiotics/analgesics and an antiseptic cream. This fact was misleadingly left out of the article based on a release from the GHRA. Again I ask whether this is callous indifference or complicity to torture.
I never said that the patient was okay. In the given circumstances where no stationery was available and in a non-clinical setting, I did the best I could and acted with a clear conscience. I should like to make it clear that I have been practising medicine in the Guyana Police Force for the past twelve years and I have always treated patients presented to me with care, sensitivity and concern, whether they be ranks from the Guyana Police Force, detainees from the lock-ups or prisoners.
I have never ever knowingly or unknowingly encouraged torture, neither have I ever participated in any cover-up or ‘down-play.’ I left the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station with the assumption that the patient would have been carried to the hospital as soon as it was possible to do so. To accuse me of a dereliction of duty and passive complicity with torture I consider to be most insulting and incorrect, and a sinister attempt to vilify and malign.
I refute the news article in the strongest possible terms and request that the GHRA stops forthwith associating me with direct, indirect, passive or active torture. I am not that kind of person, nor am I that kind of doctor.
I urge that all of the unfounded and derisive remarks about me be retracted, and also that I be issued with an unconditional apology.
Finally I would suggest to the GHRA to cease casting aspersions in the media and to focus their energies more on some real humanitarian work in the prisons and underprivileged areas of the country.
Yours faithfully,
Mahendra Chand
If you want to keep your job or receive a promotion, this is the type of letter you must write so the President can see and read it.
Dr.Chand, you would have been advised to ignore the publicity seeking misfits in the so called HUman Rights Association ? You are just giving them credibility….
The Guyanese people know what’s the deal. We have a situation where a handful of lil boys are being directed by string pullers trying to play hero by shooting up a police station and damaging people’s propety and trying to cause other damage and yet we have atempts to make out a case for the burn boy. Where are the priorities of these misfits in the Assoc ? Don’t they think ? Don’t they realise that Guyanese people are not stupid !
Where will the misfits be when the parents of some of these boys start crying when their children’s bodies may (MAY I said) turn up,dying by the sword they living by?
Oh yes, me is forget..down outside the station wid placards…
Out with him!
Absolutely ridiculous letter that hopefully will be used against you in the court.
I am of the opinion that these are the kinds of people that we ought to go after. Those that give fig-leaf cover to the pyscopaths in the force.
Chand, the process you use to approach logic and common sense as to what your duty is…is disturbing at all levels.
Maybe you should not mistake your job description for The Hippocratic Oath.
I know it can be confusing at times, but try to focus.
Griot, you are on the money!
This letter is now a legal document, and given the circumstances, you would think that Chand would know that if not legally–at the least, instinctively! Every dog knows when there is another bark, or in the case of humans, hurdle to overcome up the road.
When one begins to evaluate the minds that are placed in these positions of importance in Guyana via their varying missives and tirades, it certainly revives the phrase all Guyanese had already become familiar with–Square Pegs In Round Holes.
Is it why we read these people and decide ahead of time that if it were not so serious, it would be funny?
WHY YAAL BADDERING THIS MAN? LEF HE ALONE NA. HE IS A HERO CAUSE THE LIL BAI LUCKY HE TOOK TIME OUT HE BUSY SCHEDULE TO SEE HE. BAGGED OR UNBAGGED.
I have a few questions for this doctor himself. Sir, did you not question as to why a bag was placed over the young man’s head? Did it not concerned you as to how this young man got these burns? Have you lost your humanity so much so that you could easily turn a blind eye to such torture without so much as a question? Don’t you understand that by your silence you were actually condoning this torture? Try as much as you want, the damage has already been done, not only to the young man but to you and your career. For years to come your name will be asociated with the terror the young man suffered. No crying or begging can change what was done. I am not a doctor but I think I would have reacted in a very different way on seeing this young man. I believe all hell would have broken loose. Remember the laws of karma dictate you will reap what you sow and my friend, even if you don’t reap it in this lifetime, you will reap it at sometime. Or worst yet, your children or grand children may suffer for your sins. However, our god is a loving and forgiving god so I will advise you go down on your kness and beg forgiveness from the him as well as from the young man. I know the public is not going to forgive you that easily but with god’s grace you will be able to show your compassion and humanity once again.
Mr. Chand, if I were you I would stop talking/writing letters to the editor(s) of the local newspapers and apologize to the teen, his family and the nation. You’re trying to defend the indefensible and your actions appear more callous than compassionate.
The type of injury is obviously not normal even more given the setting. With the bag on his head, did you ask the person his age but more importantly, is the wound self-inflicted? If not, who did it and when did it happen?
Your direct quote “After a short wait, I was presented with the said patient who was naked except for his head which was covered with a bag. At this point, I must point out to the GHRA that the bag “was not tightened at the neck with a string and that the patient was breathing comfortably.”
Mr. Chand, didn’t you find this strange, out of the ordinary, odd? Again, it begs the question have the police presented patients to you in this manner before? In your general practice is it customary for a patient/person to be naked except for a bag over his/her head? Was the patient holding the bag himself or was the police holding the bag over the patient’s head? What if anything, did the police tell you about this “person” who is in their custody that needed to be seen prior to your arrival? Have you been interviewed by the police as part of their investigation that will be sent to the mendicant micromanager?
Mr. Chand…STOP, you’re digging a deeper hole for yourself and the immoral government that employs you and is a reflection of the overall gross incompetence of this cabal.
Stokes ! The bag was probably to hide his ethnicity.
Guess it’s SOP to treat police patients with bags over their faces. Shades of Abu Graib. No stationery? No paper? No PAPER! NO PAPER? OK, OK, saving the trees. Oh, the LCD. Arite.
Dr Chand are you for real??..Just imagine this Doctor thinks that it’s OK to examine a patient with a “bag over his face” and not remove the bag to see if said patient has been brutalized in the head or face. Hell yes, I do agree with the GHRA totally because this is indeed ‘callous indifference beyond belief’..
C’mon Dr Mahendra Chand not even the slightest of curiosity as to who this patient is.. Don’t you have teenage relatives or neighbors??.. Only in Guyana can a medical doctor get away with supposedly doing PUBLIC SERVICE and not visually identify the patient during examination.
Hackett, Guyana is in big big trouble…
OK, Dr. Mahendra Chand, I, a citizen of Guyana, accuse you of doing a poor job in dealing with the torture victim and no apology or retracting will come from me.
The police had sodomized a Haitian man with a baton. The man was taken to the hospital.
The doctor immediately recognized what he saw as brutal torture.
What did the doctor do? You guessed it. He blew the whistle!!!
Doctor Chand chose not to blow the whistle. Maybe he lacked imagination to figure out how the teenager’s genitals got burned? And, maybe he did not recognize these injuries as torture. And, also he should have asked the police to remove the bag over the prisoner’s head – and finally he should have asked the teen how he got burned on his genitals.
Mr. Mahendra,
Did you tell the person in charge at the police station that the youth was TORTURED and he or she must immediately address this illegal action by the police? Did you call the police chief to report the TORTURE? Did you call the Minister of Home Affairs to report the TORTURE? To say “I left the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station with the ASSUMPTION that the patient would have been carried to the hospital as soon as it was possible to do so” is a reflection of your indifference to the torturing of the child. Where were you sense of outrage at the illegal acts by the police? Your point is that you did your job but for someone in your position, your job entails protecting the medical rights and health and welfare of those you serve. To offer this lame brained letter in defense of your actions or lack thereof is despicable and an affront to all decent human beings. Do the right thing now. RESIGN!
The good Doctor seems to be looking for flowers or sympathy,
sorry doc I dont have any to offer.
Doc. You shudda keep you mouth shut and wait pun the GMA to investigate! I is a lil poo poo Manager, a member of a Professional Organisation (the CMI of UK) and have to be guided by certain organisational ethical behaviour. In addition I am a product of village life and therefore am guided by personal values instilled by parents and dozens of my peers and village elders.
I cannot claim credit when I need to work outside of so called ‘regular time’. In fact last time change here I was obligated (expected) to monitor and deal with issues arising therefrom even though I work Monday to Friday!
i think now that you have disclosed the standard operating proceedures of the Police Surgeon it frightens ordinary citizens.
I hope to God i dont have to be a prisioner and get sick under doctors care! Next doctor visit here I will try to cover my head while he examines me and see what he does!
“I was presented with the said patient who was naked except for his head which was covered with a bag. ….. was not tightened at the neck with a string and that the patient was breathing comfortably.”
Doc are you for real!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You real coldhearted bannas.
This letter clearly reveals what depths of insensitivity and unprofessionalism,we have sunk to in Guyana.
well said doctor please be reminded that as a doctor you have no specific working hours therefore you are required to work 24/7 or resign.Since you saw that the prisoner head was cover with a bag and the genital areas and other parts of the child body was burn did you asked any questions from the child? Remember the oath you took as a doctor.
YOU HAVE FAILED TO DO YOUR JOB, FAILED HOPELESSLY.