Page 59 - Marlie Burton Roche : Landscape and Bread
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respond to this situation some          I had only read about it but in that case he could have died. It was terrible
               doctors in COPPES started an            to operate on a man without anesthesia but we had to do it.

               infirmary four years ago. They            I do all kinds of surgery now. I am not a doctor. I was only studying
               started with nothing. Then we           medicine for three years but I have to do these things. Now I have a lot of
               got some help from families who         practice because I need to do it. I am the only one here who can do this.
               brought us medicine. We started        We open the stomach to remove bullets or pieces of bone. Now the army is

               to give medical attention to the        using a bomb that explodes and throws a lot of pieces. It hurts a lot. Maybe
               political prisoners. Then some          we have to take out twenty or thirty pieces of metal. It is really bad. They
               humanitarian organizations and          can get an infection. A lot of political prisoners have been blindfolded for

               the church sent medicine because        maybe fifteen days. The army usually hits the eyes. So we have a special
               they understood the problems            sickness where a skin grows over the eye; we have to take it off or the
               of health in the prison. The big        prisoner will go blind.
               problem is that we don’t have the

               right to go to the hospital. If you       Now we have this infirmary, which gives medical attention to the political
               are really sick you can die here. It    prisoners, to the common prisoners, and to the guards because they need
               happens. The common prisoners           medical attention too. They are poor people and they don’t have a place to

               can go to a hospital but they have      get medical attention. We also give attention to our families. On visitor’s
               to pay the official doctor. It’s a      day a lot of poor families come here to get treatment. Medicine is really
               really corrupt system.                  expensive so we make our own and use natural medicine. We take charcoal

                                                       for diarrhea. We use honey, lemon, and onion for coughs. It helps a lot.
                  When the government
               repression increased, a lot of            We need food. Now it is really bad. We only get one tortilla and two
               injured and sick people were sent       spoonfuls of beans in the morning and evening. At lunch we might get two

               to the prison. In 1986, the military    tortillas with some water and oil inside. That’s all. We are having problems,
               started ‘Operation Phoenix’ in          people get sick because of the food. Sometimes our families bring food.
               the Guazapa area, shooting a lot       When we get food we divide it up amoung all the compañeros. We try to
               of farmers. They came to the jail       help the common prisoners by giving them medical attention and when we

               badly injured so we had to do           have food we send them some.
               surgery inside. It was really hard
               because we didn’t have equipment          We also give mental assistance. If you are a farmer and have always lived

               or anesthesia but we had to do it       in the country and then the army has captured and tortured you, being sent
               or these people would have died.        to a place like this can make you crazy. We are trying to help these people.
               In 1986 a man was shot by the
               army. He had three big holes in his       Some medical help came from other countries through humanitarian

               leg. He was fifteen days without        medical organizations. They came to the jail to give us assistance and
               medical attention. He got worms. I      equipment and we started to learn how to work as a real infirmary. Now
               had to cut the leg off. It was really,   I have more experience and help. Some people from a French medical

               really bad gangrene. At that time       organization come here twice a week to teach us a lot about surgical
               we didn’t have much anesthesia.         techniques. They come here because we have been fighting for this - with
               It was my first amputation. It was      hunger strikes. Also, people from Denmark and Spain have come, but it is
               hard. I didn’t have any experience.     difficult. Sometimes they are not allowed to enter.







                                                                                                    LANDSCAPE & BREAD    MARLIE BURTON-ROCHE      55
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