US:Despite sweeping measures to prevent suicides among the 305 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, a detainee slashed his throat with a sharpened fingernail recently and could have bled to death if guards had not rushed to his aid, officers said on Tuesday.
The apparent suicide attempt in November in a shower at the maximum-security Camp 6 prison was one of dozens known to have occurred since prisoners were first brought here nearly six years ago.
Since three suicides in June last year and one in May - all four by hanging - bed linens have been collected each morning to deprive the detainees of any means of making ligatures.
Anyone suspected of trying to hurt himself is stripped of all bedding and normal prison garb, then outfitted in a green quilted "suicide smock" that attaches by Velcro and cannot be shredded.
Three detainees swallowed hoarded medicines in a co-ordinated suicide attempt in May 2006, prompting medical staff to cut in half the number of pills issued to prisoners each day.
The navy commander who is senior medical officer at the prison clinic said daily dispensing was down to 500 and that corpsmen ensured each pill was swallowed.
But little can be done to stop those most determined to hurt themselves, conceded the senior medical officer, who did not want to be further identified.
A senior officer of the guard force confirmed that the latest incident occurred in a shower and was interrupted by soldiers, who patrol the cell blocks every few minutes.
The laceration to the detainee's throat inflicted by his fingernail caused "an impressive effusion of blood", said navy Cmdr Andy Haynes, deputy chief of the Joint Detention Group that guards the prisoners.
The prisoner, whom officials did not identify, was given two stitches in his neck at the detention hospital, then confined to the psychological ward for a week, the medical source said.
Guantánamo officials seldom report or confirm what they refer to as "manipulative self-harm incidents", but such occurrences are known to persist despite the preventive measures.
Former Baltimore resident Majid Khan, a so-called "high-value detainee" and alleged affiliate of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, used his teeth to sever a vein in his wrist shortly after his transfer last year to Guantánamo from detention at a secret CIA prison abroad.
That revelation came in documents released after Khan's combatant status review tribunal earlier this year.