During the recent wave of protests in Iran, doctors in Tehran have reported that the most common injuries among patients include bullet or pellet injuries and gunshot wounds to the eyes, according to reports by CNN and The Guardian on Tuesday.
According to an Iranian doctor who requested to remain anonymous, "things in the hospital fell apart" by the time the internet shutdown began last week. The doctor could only share the information because he had recently left the country, as shared in an interview for IranWire.
“I saw what we call a ‘mass casualty’ situation in medicine. That is when your potential and facilities to provide services are less than the population of patients,” he said.
In addition, an Iranian ophthalmologist has documented, in a single hospital, more than 400 eye injuries due to gunshots. He shared a scenario of an overwhelmed medical staff struggling to deal with the violent crackdown of the Iranian protests, The Guardian reported.
A group of Iranian doctors who talked to The Guardian noted that gunshot wounds have been mostly concentrated on demonstrators' eyes and heads.
“[Security forces] are deliberately shooting at the head and the eyes. They want to damage the head and the eyes so they can no longer see, the same thing they did in [2022],” said one of the physicians.
The doctor added that many of the patients had to have their eyes removed and were blinded.
Saving lives becomes a question of choice
One of the physicians shared that during his time working in Iran during the protest wave, he had to analyze groups of patients and elect which ones he would try to save. The choice was based on who had the higher probability of surviving until an operating room was free, the doctor told CNN.
“By Friday evening… all the beds were full. Most had pellet injuries and similar wounds,” the doctor said. “Life is paralyzed. No one is okay. Even the hope being broadcast abroad doesn’t exist inside Iran. Everyone is trapped in terror, helplessness, and just a trace of hope,” he added.
As the death toll from the Iranian protests keeps rising, doctors suspect that the released numbers could be just a fraction of the reality.
“It’s like in the war movies where you see the injured soldiers getting treated on the open field. We don’t have blood, and we don’t have enough medical supplies. It’s like a war zone,” the doctor from Tehran said. His colleague detailed treating injured protesters on the ground outside in freezing temperatures due to a lack of space in hospitals.
At the moment, doctors in Iran need to deal not only with patients, but also with the authorities. A group told CNN that security forces would enter hospitals in rounds to arrest injured protesters.
“My colleagues are very distressed, tired and horrified. They are breaking down in tears,” said one of the doctors. He added that one of his colleagues was wounded while travelling to the hospital after being shot by authorities.