Controversy Over Doc’s Article
| 8/3/2007 | Posted by Patti under Afghanistan |
The July/August edition of Mother Jones, an independent publication, carried a piece by Dr. Kevin Patterson entitled “Talk to Me Like My Father: Frontline Medicine in Afghanistan“. It is a 7,000 word piece about the time he spent serving in the base hospital in Kandahar, a Canadian civilian doctor on contract to the military.
Some of what he wrote is very graphic and a portion of it describes in detail the final moments of Corporal Megeney’s death as the medical staff fought to try to save him. Cpl Megeney was killed by accident when a weapon discharged in his tent. The death is still under investigation by the military. Although not in as much detail there is also some graphic details about the death of Captain Nichola Goddard’s, Canada’s only female soldier killed in combat. Patterson was repeating what another doctor told him about it, he wasn’t present.
The piece garnered negative attention when The News—a community paper that serves Pictou County, Nova Scotia, where parts of the Megeney family lives—reported that George Megeney, Cpl. Megeney’s uncle, was upset that Dr. Patterson described the methods used to try and save his nephew, and did not disguise his identity. Mother Jones argues that the young soldier’s death was widely reported in Canada and any attempt to disguise his identity would have been useless.
They also claim that they were assured by Megeney’s mother, a nurse, that it was okay. Some of the family claims this is not true, his parent’s haven’t commented directly due to the military investigation. Comments on the story on the Mother Jone’s website vary in response from those disgusted with the detail to those who praise the story.
Leaving aside, for the moment, the graphic part about Megeney — which is not actually the central focus of the piece — it is a well written piece. It provides the reader with a rare perspective of life on the Kandahar base where 2500 Canadian soldiers at a time are based for six month rotations. It is a view and perspective that is rarely written about in the Canadian media, who tend to focus on troop deaths and pessimistic reports of our involvement in Afghanistan.
As for the death of Megeney, I have to admit straight off that I’m not a person who has any kind of burning desire for graphic details about a person’s death. I tend to not watch CSI because of their depictions of graphic details on the ‘investigations’. Most of the time I tend to tune out from those sort of details, but because of the controversy I did carefully read what Patterson wrote.
I can’t even attempt to project what the Megeney family feel about what Patterson wrote. His mom being a nurse doesn’t mean that she would view the scene from a clinical standpoint. I wouldn’t even begin to expect that when it is your flesh and blood being described. Relatively speaking, the Megeney family are not very far along when it comes to grieving the sudden loss of their loved one. The inclusion of those details may be just a bit too early. Later on, an account of the frantic attempt to save him, might be of some comfort.
The other aspect of the controversy is the ethics of naming Megeney. I tend to agree to a point with the editors in that leaving his name out would have been unlikely to have stopped him from being identified, particularly by family and friends reading the piece. It does leave me wondering where, or if, there is a line between being newsworthy and the right to privacy.
Follow Me!