US Army doctor used ’macabre methods’

Since retiring from the US Army in 2000, Dr John Henry Hagmann has helped train thousands of soldiers and medical personnel in how to treat battlefield wounds. 

His company, Deployment Medicine International, has received more than $10.5m (€9.3m) in business from the federal government.

The taxpayer-funded training has long troubled animal rights activists, who contend that Hagmann’s use of live, wounded pigs to simulate combat injuries is unnecessarily cruel.

But an investigation by Virginia medical authorities alleges pigs weren’t the doctor’s only training subjects.

During instructional sessions in 2012 and 2013 for military personnel, Hagmann gave trainees drugs and liquor, and directed them to perform macabre medical procedures on one another, according to a report issued by the Virginia Board of Medicine, the state agency that oversees the conduct of doctors.

Hagmann, 59, is accused of inappropriately providing at least 10 students with the hypnotic drug ketamine.

The report alleges Hagmann told students to insert catheters into the genitals of other trainees and that two intoxicated students were subjected to penile nerve block procedures.

Hagmann also is accused of conducting “shock labs,” a process in which he withdrew blood from the students, monitored them for shock, and then transfused the blood back into their systems.

The report alleges that Hagmann also “exploited, for personal gain and sexual gratification” two participants who attended a July 2013 course at his Virginia farm.

The Virginia Board of Medicine temporarily suspended Hagmann’s license in March.

A hearing is set for June 19 before the full medical board, which could revoke Hagmann’s medical license. During the hearing, Hagmann and state lawyers are expected to present their respective cases, which may include testimony from students or other witnesses.

In a statement Hagmann provided on Friday to Reuters, he said: “The mechanisms and protocols utilised in the training all comply with standard practices for training medical students and are, in fact, utilised in medical schools in Virginia.”

Hagmann said the “claims of sexual misconduct cause me the most anguish. Absolutely no ‘sexual gratification’ was involved and there is no evidence of such.”

He said “the courses and procedures in question were all reviewed and approved” by officials at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a government-run medical school.

The university disputes that. “The procedures used during the training were not authorized by USU faculty,” said Sharon Holland, a USU spokeswoman .