Nurse recalls a dictator who wrote poetry, fed birds

From January 2004 until August 2005, Master Sergeant Robert Ellis was the senior medical adviser at the compound near Baghdad where Saddam and other “high value detainees” were jailed. Ellis (56), an operating room nurse in St Charles, said he was ordered to do whatever was needed to keep Saddam alive. “That was my job: to keep him alive and healthy, so they could kill him at a later date,” he told the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

Ellis said Saddam was confined to a 2-by-2.4-metre cell in solitary confinement at Camp Cropper. He had a cot and a small table where he kept some books and a Quran, two plastic chairs, a prayer rug and two wash basins. An adjoining cell had basic medical supplies, a defibrillator, intravenous solutions and oxygen.

Ellis checked on Saddam twice a day. He wrote a thorough “situation” report daily about Saddam’s physical and emotional status.

Saddam told Ellis that cigars and coffee kept his blood pressure down, and it seemed to work. Saddam would insist that Ellis smoke with him. At one point, Saddam went on a hunger strike, refusing to eat when guards would slide food through the slot at the bottom of his door. But when they changed tactics and opened the door, he started eating again. “He refused to be fed like a lion,” Ellis said.

When he was allowed short visits outside, Saddam would feed the birds crusts of bread saved from his meals. He also watered a dusty plot of weeds. “He said he was a farmer in his youth and never forgot where he came from,” Ellis said.

He said Saddam didn’t complain much. When he did, it was usually legitimate. “He had very good coping skills,”Ellis said.