WASHINGTON — A retired Army doctor who now trains thousands of soldiers and medical personnel to treat battlefield wounds faces allegations he gave trainees hypnotic drugs and liquor, directed them to perform unusual medical procedures on one another’s genitals and exploited two participants for his own sexual gratification.
The Virginia Board of Medicine has temporarily suspended the medical license of Dr. John Henry Hagmann pending a full hearing of the board on June 19.
Hagmann allegedly drugged students to measure their response time and cognition while intoxicated. He also instructed students to insert catheters into the genitals of students and to perform a penile nerve block on one student.
The medical board’s report details Hagmann’s alleged use of “shock labs,” which involved “withdrawing blood from medical students,” monitoring them for signs of shock, “and then auto-transfusing their blood back to them.”
Hagmann, 59, says his procedures were approved by a government-run medical school, but the Uniformed Services University disputes that.
Dr. Hagmann has been criticized by animal rights groups for years for using wounded live animals in his trainings. His company received $10.5 million in government contracts, as one of the leading trauma-response trainers.
“It seems like this is a renegade contractor visiting abuse on military personnel and live animals,” Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, told Reuters.
“It’s mind-boggling. It’s like a diabolical mad scientist at work in a horror movie.”
