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 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 that
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 student 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 allegations against Hagmann have not been previously reported.
They are administrative in nature, detailed in a 15-page dossier
compiled by two assistant attorneys general for the board. The group
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 utilized in the training all comply with
standard practices for training medical students and are, in fact,
utilized 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.”
Hagmann 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
that trains and prepares health professionals to support the
military.
The university disputes that. “The procedures used during the
training were not authorized by USU faculty,” said Sharon Holland, a
spokeswoman for the Uniformed Services University.
Holland said a student there raised concerns about Hagmann’s
training in July 2013. “The moment the department and USU leadership
were informed that these events occurred, the institution
immediately suspended the relationship with Dr. Hagmann, his course,
and his company,” Holland said. “We launched an investigation and
those findings prompted a report to the Virginia Medical Board.”
Holland said the university also alerted the Defense Criminal
Investigative Service, a law enforcement agency that oversees the
Department of Defense. A spokesman for the service was not
immediately available for comment Monday.
Cynthia Smith, a U.S. Army spokeswoman, said she could not comment
on the case because the records were not readily accessible. But,
she added, “We certainly don't condone that type of behavior.”
 “DIABOLICAL MAD SCIENTIST”
Medical health professionals familiar with trauma training say they
were stunned to hear about Hagmann’s techniques. Virginia state
lawyers, investigating complaints by some students who attended the
sessions, wrote in the report to the state’s medical board that
“these procedures were not undertaken or provided in good faith for
medicinal or therapeutic purposes.”
One doctor who offers trauma training, Harvard Medical School
professor David King, said that “some of what is described in these
allegations is wildly unheard of and perhaps unsafe.”
Dr. Howard Mell, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency
Physicians, said he could not comment on any specific case. But
speaking generally about “shock labs,” Mell said subjecting students
to such problems during training would be absurd.
“I treat people in the ER everyday for things I have never
experienced,” said Mell, a Cleveland doctor who trains emergency
medical workers and police officers. “I certainly don’t need to
experience shock to know how to treat it. If that logic was true,
men couldn’t be obstetricians.”
Hagmann said that the Virginia board is applying the wrong standard
in assessing his conduct: He said that his trainees are "students,"
not "patients" as the board calls them, and therefore he may have
them perform procedures on one another as part of the educational
process.
He told Reuters the allegations are amplified by “animal rights
advocates or those with an anti-military agenda.”
Hagmann has drawn fire from animal rights groups for years because
he is a leading practitioner of “live-tissue training,” which
involves teaching students by using wounded live animals as
patients. Often, pigs are the subjects. Under pressure from animal rights groups, the U.S. military has
reduced live-tissue training. But groups including People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals have called for an outright ban, long
complaining to the Pentagon about DMI’s “senseless shooting and
stabbing of live animals,” said Justin Goodman, PETA’s laboratory
investigations director.
“We are absolutely disgusted to learn that the company’s cruel,
violent and abusive behavior apparently targets service members as
well,” Goodman said.
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Earlier today, PETA sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter
a summary of an undercover video it says it took during a 2013
training session by Hagmann’s company. The group also asked the
Pentagon to cease contracting with DMI. Goodman said the video
depicts gratuitous violence against the wounded pigs, and racist and
sexist jokes by course instructors.
PETA posted the video, which includes graphic violence, at
http://youtu.be/qXwN8ItF3fE
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, an Armed Services Committee member who has
introduced legislation to ban live-tissue training, said he was
disturbed by the video and charges leveled against Hagmann by the
Virginia Board of Medicine.
“It seems like this is a renegade contractor visiting abuse on
military personnel and live animals,” said Johnson, a Georgia
Democrat. “It’s mind-boggling. It’s like a diabolical mad scientist
at work in a horror movie.”
AMONG PIONEERS IN TRAUMA
In the Army, Hagmann practiced emergency medicine for two decades.
He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and co-authored an
influential combat treatment manual.
After retiring, Hagmann founded DMI – also known as Deployment
Medicine Consultants. It is based in Gig Harbor, Washington.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, demand for his
courses grew and DMI emerged as a preeminent trauma-response
trainer. The majority of DMI’s government contracts are with the
U.S. military – in particular, Army and Navy special operation
units.
“The mission of DMI is to train you to save lives in the combat
environment, no one matches our ability to do this,” the company
says on its website. “We are the single largest trainer of US
military forces in operational medicine throughout world, and our
record for excellence stands unchallenged.”
To demonstrate the positive impact of his training, Hagmann provided
to Reuters testimonial emails from two former students. One,
deployed in North Africa, wrote last month: “You forever changed my
approach to combat medicine… Please know you have made a tremendous
impact in countless lives.” Reuters could not immediately reach the
former students for comment.
Such testimonials stand in stark contrast with the board of
medicine’s report.
In one case detailed by investigators, Virginia authorities allege
that Hagmann boasted to a student “about his proficiency with rectal
exams” and took the student to a warehouse on his property. There,
the report claims, the two “continued to consume beer” and Hagmann
asked the student “about the effect (the student’s) uncircumcised
penis had on masturbation and sexual intercourse.” The student told
investigators “that he was inebriated and felt that he could not
refuse Dr. Hagmann’s request … to examine, manipulate and photograph
his penis.”
In his statement to Reuters, Hagmann connected his comments on
circumcision to his live-tissue trauma training course this way:
“The debate on the value and impact of circumcision is a current
medical and social issue. The historical link between circumcision
and masturbation is a fact dating since Victorian England and is
still a current topic subject to scientific research.”
The Virginia medical board report also says Hagmann conducted what
board investigators described as “ketamine labs,” “alcohol labs,”
and “cognition labs.” The labs, officials wrote, “involved the
dosing of ketamine and consumption of alcohol, at times in
combination or in quick succession, so that he (Hagmann) could
assess the effects of these substances on their cognition.”
During a July 2013 course in North Carolina, authorities say,
participants were provided eight shots of rum in 10 minutes. About
an hour later, they were allegedly injected with ketamine. Officials
allege that one intoxicated participant received a penile nerve
block, a type of anesthesia. When other students stepped in to
prevent a second intoxicated student from receiving the procedure,
the report says, Hagmann volunteered himself, and students performed
a penile nerve block on him.
"I have been working in trauma centers for 30 years and I have never
done a penile nerve block," said Dr. Mark Brown, an emergency room
physician in Lancaster, California. "And why would you ever mix
alcohol and drugs? It's very puzzling.”
Hagmann told Reuters the medications were all dispensed properly. He
also said that procedures performed by students on other students
are acceptable.
“For a future or current medical care provider,” Hagmann said,
“having practice in a safe, controlled, voluntary setting has a huge
value and benefit in improving self confidence and self image.”
(Story corrects spelling of company name: Deployment Medicine
International)
(Reporting By John Shiffman.; Edited by Blake Morrison.)
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