Confirmation of my experience

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2952

Published 21 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2952
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2952

Letters

Health as a weapon of war?

Confirmation of my experience

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

I worked in the north east of Sri Lanka and witnessed the government’sdiscrimination.¹ Ultrasound and computed tomography machinesdonated by the international community were held at Colombodocks for months to rust before being transported to the northeast. Equipment sent to Colombo for repair was returned untouched.This forced us to work in an extremely challenging environment,with minimal or no functioning equipment. I participated inoperations, including limb amputations, without anaestheticsand adequate monitoring equipment. Drugs, including analgesicsand antibiotics, were past their expiry dates. Many of our patientsdid not survive even the most basic disease.

Eight weeks after the end of the shelling, international non-governmentalorganisations and the media had not been allowed into eitherthe conflict zone or the detention camps. Aid workers remainingin Sri Lanka have been forced to leave the country.² A shipfrom Britain carrying 900 tonnes of food and . . . [Full text of this article]

Bobby Sundaralingam, radiologist/nuclear medicine physician¹

¹ Eastern Health, Melbourne, VIC 3128, Australia

absunda@hotmail.com