DR GUDELJ: GENERAL WAS GIVEN NARCOTIC FENTANYL; HIS KIDNEYS FAILED

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 4 /SRNA/ - Dr Ognjen Gudelj said that General Ratko Mladić's medical team learned from his temperature chart that he had previously been given the drug fentanyl in The Hague, which is a narcotic.

"The lawyer and the family were informed that he was receiving fentanyl patches. What I have before me and what I brought out of the tribunal is the temperature chart, which states that he was treated with sublingual doses of fentanyl throughout," said Gudelj, a member of General Mladić's medical team.

He explained that some of the metabolites of fentanyl are excreted through the kidneys and can lead to cessation of urination.

"At that point, the general already had a catheter. That means his kidneys had stopped functioning, and it was only a matter of days before his life would come to an end," Dr Gudelj pointed out.

He said that it was only later, after asking the lawyer, that he learned that no one could sue them and that they were "a court above the courts," although he had wanted to file a lawsuit because he had presented all the documentation.

"The doctor told me at our last meeting, `Colleague, you will agree that we disagree.` I replied that there was no problem with us disagreeing, but that all European, American, Japanese, and global treatment guidelines were at odds with her and their approach to treatment, and that this would, at this point, cost someone dearly," Gudelj said at a press conference.

He added that he then asked to be given a device for measuring General Mladić's blood pressure.

"That was the first time she told me, after I had been going there for many years, that she was sorry, but that they did not have a blood pressure monitor. I think I've said enough," Gudelj said.