Shimkus, Albert - short clip - HungerStrikesintheEarlyDays

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-	As we received the detainee	0:00
	remember we did a complete physical	0:02
	which included height and weight.	0:03
	So height weight ratio is one of the ways	0:05
	that you look at the physiological well-being	0:07
	of individual on a hunger strike.	0:10
	So we had a baseline when hunger strikes begin.	0:11
	And so as the hunter strikes were part of the environment	0:14
	we used that baseline to determine	0:21
	whether this patient was in extremis.	0:23
	Hunger strike is different than a water strike.	0:32
	So you can survive without food for a period of time	0:35
	surviving without water is very different.	0:37
	And so General Edward rightly so was very concerned	0:39
	about the physiological wellbeing of the hunger strikers.	0:44
	So when we found an individual who would exhibit symptoms	0:46
	of being very, very significantly dehydrated for example,	0:51
	we would take him out of the environment	0:59
	in which he was striking and bring him	1:02
	to the detention hospital.	1:04
	And we found that at least initially	1:07
	in the hunger striking environment	1:11
	they would willingly take oral fluids	1:13
	once they are out of their hunger striking environment	1:18
	they would willingly take oral fluids.	1:19
Interviewer	In the clinic or?	1:22
-	In the clinic outside of the purview of their peers.	1:23
	And on the other hand if we found someone really in extremis	1:27
	they would also accept IV rehydration	1:33
	outside of their peers.	1:38
	And so we would bring them in, rehydrate them	1:39
	and then they would go back to the prison population.	1:42
	In the context of of what we were doing,	1:46
	within the US prison system	1:50
	interventions like that are acceptable.	1:53
	My time ended in August 2nd, 2003.	1:54
	So we did not have a detainee ever refuse	1:59
	they be either rehydrated by oral hydration	2:05
	or IV rehydration.	2:08

Item Info

Title:

Shimkus, Albert - short clip - HungerStrikesintheEarlyDays

Date:

August 9, 2011

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Shimkus, Albert

Role:

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Hospital Commanding Officer
Albert Shimkus, male, age 66, was the commanding officer and joint task force surgeon at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 to July 2003.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

1:52:30

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

e0a4973fe9d31ec1022c15395854569f
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4tq6003g
fa7c0c0b-3740-4a76-8917-11d195284f9c

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4tq6003g

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Shimkus, Albert - short clip - HungerStrikesintheEarlyDays

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