As Iranians’ anger against their theocratic rulers mounted for a fourth week, Iran’s Norway-based human rights organization said Saturday that the death toll had risen to at least 185, adding up to at least 19 children. Some Iranians who joined the protests were killed for security reasons. while carrying out a major crackdown to quell the uprising, while others later died from their wounds.
Many Iranians injured by security forces amid the protests are too afraid to go to the hospital for care, as some protesters seeking medical assistance have been arrested, according to several testimonies shared with CBS News, both inside and outside Iran.
Reports have claimed that Iran’s moral police, the same force accused of torturing and killing 22-year-old Mahsa Amini just a month ago that sparked the ongoing unrest, is even ambulances in the capital, Tehran, to send injured protesters directly to police stations.
“As soon as they enter the hospital, there are intelligence agents and members of the Revolutionary Guards signing with their names,” one Iranian told CBS News on condition of anonymity. “We have noticed cases where injured patients have been operated on in hospitals. and then released and arrested. “
That’s why, the doctor explained, many injured protesters stay home and call doctors like him privately. He said he saw a great diversity of injuries, of a great diversity of weapons.
“[Security forces] use a variety of weapons to crack down on other people, from plastic to pellets, Kalashnikovs and even sniper fire,” the doctor told CBS News. “We had the case of a user who was shot but liked to go blind than be admitted to a hospital. “
The doctor said he and other medical professionals who treated injured protesters in secret were threatened by Iranian authorities, and some were forced to sign written pledges to abstain.
On Monday, a Kurdish organization called Hengaw Orgnanization for Human Rights reported that plainclothes security officers severely beat and detained an Iranian doctor for treating injured protesters at Amini’s in Saqqez.
Despite the dangers, the doctor who spoke to CBS News said he proceeded with his paintings as many protesters leave to treat themselves at home, “one way or another,” for fear of arrest if they go to the hospital.
Other Iranian medical professionals who also did not need to be known for fear of their protection told CBS News they felt a duty to help the wounded. An Iranian nurse said she treated two protesters whose skulls had been fractured.
“They were afraid to go to the hospital,” he said, adding that he had to treat his wounds on the street, amid the riots, so he had time to disinfect them very well.
“There’s not even the option to observe the fundamental principles,” the nurse said. “I don’t know how they are. . . I’m still worried about them. “
The threat of arrest for the injured protesters is real, according to the Iranian nurse and emergency call operator.
“We are required to report all shooting cases to the police because all phone calls are recorded,” he said.
She described what happened when an ambulance called to help a 14-year-old protester who was shot dead after school.
“The police came. . . They took the child with the catheter still in his hand,” the nurse said. Their challenge is not serious. “
The desperation of injured protesters who need to go to hospitals is clear, said Dr. Kayvan Mirhadi, an Iranian-American and leader of internal medicine at New York’s Clifton Springs Hospital. Mirhadi said he receives about 500 Instagram messages a day from injured protesters in Iran, begging him to see a doctor.
“So a user who bleeds from the leg due to a gunshot wound, just waits for me on the phone,” he told CBS News. “It’s a terrible situation . . . because they are so scared. . . waiting for me to tell them what to do. “
He said he first tried to refer them to doctors he trusted in Iran, but if they don’t find one, try consulting them through home remedies he can recommend. Their injuries range from fractures and serious head injuries to physical injuries. combat, second and third degree burns from electric batons and gunshot and pellet wounds.
These accounts are consistent with what Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the “excessive and deadly” use of force by the Iranian government in the protests. The use of hunting rifles and attack rifles by Iranian security forces against protesters is contrary to foreign standards, Tara Sepehri Lejos, senior Iran researcher at HRW, told CBS News.
“The trend shows those who are shot dead, in spaces above the chest,” he said.
“I have step-by-step instructions on what to do with the burns, with the bullets,” Mirhadi said. He also posted remedy tips on his Instagram page, adding how to treat gunshot wounds to the chest and eyes.
Mirhadi said he won many photos like the one on the left, which he said gave the impression of showing a teenage woman with gunshot wounds to her back. He advised using tweezers to remove the pills and then disinfecting the wounds with betadine, a topical antiseptic. .
“I never give recommendations on antibiotics on Instagram, but I had to, because this woman can have sepsis [shock] because she said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to go to the hospital with this. If I pass, I go to jail,” Mirhadi told CBS News.
The New York doctor first gained a giant on social media in Iran by offering medical recommendations on COVID-19.
“I feel very responsible,” he added. What I do in a hospital with other people and nurses, I do on Instagram with a patient’s family and I hope they help me. “
Another Iranian-American doctor, Dr. Kamiar Alaei, and his brother, Dr. Arash Alaei, who is also in the United States, began remotely educating medical professionals in Iran to officially document the protesters’ injuries and deaths. Both brothers are former Iranians. political prisoners. They were jailed after being accused of seeking to foment a comfortable revolution through their paintings fighting HIV/AIDS in the country, a rate they denied. The two men are also inundated with screams of injured protesters in Iran.
“There are other types of injuries to other parts of the body, especially to the head and hands from baton blows and shotguns [pellets] to other parts of the body, basically to the back and face,” Kamiar Alaei told CBS News, adding that he had never noticed anything like “the extent of the wounds and the number of other people who were shot. adding minors and girls” in Iran.
“The regime aims to undermine the scale and scope of the damage by reducing the [official] number of other people killed, as not all injuries will be detectable later,” he said. “Our goal is to document them to show the extent of torture and the extent of physical and intellectual injuries. . . to hold the regime accountable to foreign bodies. “
The Iranian government has not updated the death toll for weeks as it continues its crackdown. They stopped counting at 41.
Mirhadi said he felt almost “desperate” because he couldn’t keep up with all the “SOS messages” he received.
However, he has a message for Iran’s leaders: “These are your people. They harm them to be there to protest for their own rights. At least let the doctors take care of them. Don’t take ambulances to detention centers. “
“These are very basic things,” he added. It’s a basic human right to allow them to do this. “
Mirhadi said he knew a doctor in Iran who was arrested for helping protesters and could not find out what happened to him.