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7 - Care of victims of torture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2009

Fiona E. Gallahue  and
Laura D. Melville
By
Moira Davenport M.D.
Fiona E. Gallahue
Affiliation:
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Laura D. Melville
Affiliation:
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Moira Davenport M.D.
Affiliation:
Clinical Attending Allegheny General Hospital
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Summary

  1. To learn what types of torture exist and screen patients who are potential survivors of torture

  2. To understand the acute and chronic effects of torture on patients

  3. To learn how to treat, document, and refer survivors of torture

‘Medicine and torture both hold a topographical affinity for each other in the sense that both reside and ‘colonise’ the private space of the sentient body of a human being: one to save a life and the other to destroy it.’

– Merlau-Ponty (Vinar, 2005)

The recent atrocities at Abu Ghraib have once again focused attention on victims of torture. Photographs from this prison site vividly illustrate the immediate physical damage sustained by victims of torture; however, these pictures do not fully illustrate the extensive long-term medical and psychological injuries sustained by these individuals. Furthermore, most victims of torture do not present in such a dramatic fashion. The United Nations (UN) High Commission of Refugees estimates that worldwide there were 9.7 million victims of torture in 2004 and Amnesty International estimates that 104 countries still practice some form of torture today. As victims of torture often flee their homeland after the abuse, physicians worldwide should be familiar with the medical needs of torture victims. This chapter will familiarize physicians with the current definitions of torture and types of torture used today as well as common medical and psychological concerns of these individuals.

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Emergency Care of the Abused , pp. 192 - 232
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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