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Are we losing our humanity?
Posted by Raven on November 2nd, 2006
Recently I linked to an article about doctors taking extreme steps to save severely wounded Marines in Iraq. I linked to this story because I was fascinated with the medical aspects- and I was blinded to the fact that this article named the soldier in the story, who died as a result of his injuries.
CAMP TAQQADUM SURGICAL, Iraq (AP) – The chaplain assigned to the medical camp was drafting a homily. The heart surgeon was using the quiet spell to edit a medical paper. The medics chatted over lunch. Twenty miles away, on the desert plain outside Fallujah, an insurgent’s bullet tore through the body of a young Marine.
Less than a half-hour later, Camp Taqqadum Surgical’s men and women were waiting as a roaring helicopter landed at their patch of sand-colored tents.
And so began an urgent, hour-long effort to save the life of….
The article is long and full of potent testimony of the sheer unedited facts of battlefield medicine. Like I said, I was reading the medical parts as if this were a case study of some sort. I disregarded the name of the Marine, and I forever ashamed for doing so.
Today, over a coffee, I came across this article in the NYT:
KARMA, Iraq, Oct. 30 — Petty Officer Third Class Dustin E. Kirby clutched the injured marine’s empty helmet. His hands were coated in blood. Sweat ran down his face, which he was trying to keep straight but kept twisting into a snarl.
He held up the helmet and flipped it, exposing the inside. It was lined with blood and splinters of bone.
“The round hit him,” he said, pausing to point at a tiny hole that aligned roughly with a man’s temple. “Right here.”
Kirby is the subject of this article- he is the Doc, the medic, the Navy Corpsman, of the platoon. A reporter writes a story about how Kirby perceives his duties. In the process of doing this, it is forgotten (or perhaps not) that a family member of the Marine who was shot may read this. It’s one thing to share the nitty gritties of wartime battles, but to share the minute, medical details is just appalling. Where is the dignity? The respect? I don’t think the NYT has any class at all, so this article doesn’t surprise me.
Cotillion sister Cass today, found the same article and is shocked:
Kirby’s grief, his anger, make great copy too. But one can’t help but wonder what the reporter who wrote this story was thinking? Did he at any time between taking reams of notes, selecting just the right shot (how many retakes did they get of that bloody hand?), carefully composing the story for his editor, stop to consider how his story would impact the family of Lance Corporal Colin Smith, the man whose blood still adorned Petty Officer Kirby’s hand in that killer photo? Or is that sort of thing considered ‘collateral damage’ by the media: all part of the acceptable cost of doing business in the information age?
The media will do anything to stay in the ratings game. The nasty details of wounds and deaths are no longer an exception. And naming the wounded and dead is no longer an exception either. It’s all part of the bigger picture: To draw the horror of war into people’s lives, in living color.
I have written much here about wounded soldiers and their recovery processes. I have also written about the heroes who gave it all in this conflict. I have seen first hand, the wounds of the living as well- brain injuries, amputations and the like. It’s not pretty.
In my work I have become somewhat sanitized to the medical aspects of these stories. I see the details of interventions vs. the person. This is not good. It happens to all of us who work in medicine and nursing though.
More than that though, the average person who might read these articles could become blinded by the gore, and become less shocked that wounded and dead soldiers are named; that a family member might read about their loved soldier too. Imagine their shock. No awe would go with it- I can assure you of that. The nightmares will last a lifetime for these people.
The AP and NYT should reconsider printing such articles. While we want to know the battle stories, we don’t want to become so inhumane that we read PAST the names of those who are most directly effected in these stories: The fighting men and women of our military. The ratings game should always come secondary to the dignity and humanity of those involved.
November 2nd, 2006 at 11:08 am
The AP and NYTimes? You are kidding, right? Those organizations will do ANYTHING to ensure America loses. They hate the military more than Kerry does. They honestly want the terrorists to win. ANYTHING they can do to support al-Queda or anyone else that opposes Bush, freedom, and America, they WILL do.
No, look for more things like this in their propoganda attempt to sway the public’s opinion to the terrorists.
November 2nd, 2006 at 11:46 am
Thank you for articulating so eloquently what I was reaching for, but couldn’t quite manage to communicate Raven. This was a clear and compelling statement of a problem we all too often – on all sides of the political spectrum – sweep under the rug.
I have struggled to explain why the “let us see the coffins” argument bothers me so much. But once that door is opened it becomes, “let us into the funerals”, give us access to the grieving widows. What do you have to hide.
Where does it stop? This is one thing I respect the President for: drawing a firm line in the sand and just saying no. And he has taken a lot of heat for it. But he is utterly right on this issue. These are private moments and the public does NOT have the right to intrude.
Sorry, no sale.
November 2nd, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Agreed.
Unfortunately, the bulk of the media is on the left side of the political divide, and as we’ve seen in the past few years, they draw the line at nothing — as long as it furthers their anti-Bush agenda, which to them means doing whatever they can to repeat the Vietnam formula of losing the war here at home since they can’t lose it for us on the battlefield.
If they can do so by spreading horror on the homefront, they’ll do it any way they are able, as nothing is sacred to those %#$@&%#s as long as it doesn’t enter into their own families.
November 2nd, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Our Lost Humanity
This morning I was disturbed by a piece in the New York Times. I think I was too close to the subject. Sometimes a writer reaches for the mark and just fails to convey what she feels inside. But Raven…
November 2nd, 2006 at 4:59 pm
The media go too far. By disclosing the names of wounded and dead, many times BEFORE the next of kin is even notified, is just wrong and unethical. I have written a letter to the NYT, the AP, and the DOD about this issue- just dropped them in the mailbox.
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Cass- I owe you a big THANK YOU in all this…for reminding me to open my eyes more and to stop seeing the medical stuff and start seeing the human side of all this. I hate it when this happens to me- I can’t explain it either because there is no excuse. Dignity must always come first. Always.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
I was just browsing the internet and I just found this site today and read what you said. I must say that i agree 100% I would also like you too know that I know Colin personally. he is a friend of mine. when I found that article in the NYT I was shocked. I didnt know what to think or feel, and seeing that picture, seeing the bullet that went through the head of my friend, seeing the blood of my friend on that mans hand, it was the worst feeling in the world. I have read the article over and over again and every time it still amazes me that they would print such a graphic article in a newpaper. especially a newspaper like the NYT that is read by millions of people!
I just want to thank you for expressing what I have been feeling for the past month. its good to know that other people agree with me. Colin does not need that type of publicity, nor does his friends and family, including me! it was a hard enough blow for me to have to hear about my friend being shot in the head and dealing with the fact that he might die, but then reading the grusome details on exactly how it happened was just horrible!:(