Iranian agents obstructed care at hospitals packed with wounded
protesters
[February 27, 2026]
By SARAH EL DEEB
BEIRUT (AP) — As wounded anti-government protesters poured into an
Iranian hospital during last month’s crackdown, a young doctor hurried
to the emergency room to help treat a man in his 40s who had been shot
in the head at close range.
When the doctor and others tried to resuscitate the man, a group of
armed, plainclothes security agents blocked their way, pushing some back
with their rifles, the doctor told The Associated Press.
“They surrounded him and didn’t allow us to move further,” the doctor in
the northern city of Rasht said.
Minutes later, the man was dead. The agents put his body in a black body
bag. Later, they piled it and other bodies into the back of a van and
drove away.
This wasn’t an isolated incident.
Over the course of a few days in early January, plainclothes agents
swarmed hospitals in multiple cities treating the thousands wounded by
Iranian security forces who fired on crowds to quash massive protests
against the 47-year-old Islamic Republic. These agents monitored and
sometimes obstructed care to protesters, intimidated staff, seized
protesters and took away the dead in body bags. Dozens of doctors were
arrested.
This story is based on AP interviews with three doctors in Iran and six
Iranian medical professionals living abroad who are in contact with
colleagues on the ground; reports from human rights groups; and AP’s
verification of more than a dozen videos posted on social media. All of
the doctors inside Iran spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of
retaliation.
The AP worked with Mnemonic, a Berlin-based organization, to identify
online videos, posts and other material relating to violence in
hospitals.
The doctors in Iran and abroad said the level of brutality and
militarization of health facilities was unprecedented in a country that
for decades has experienced crackdowns on dissent and surveillance of
public institutions.
The Iran Human Rights Center, based in Oslo, has documented multiple
accounts from inside hospitals of security agents preventing medical
care, removing patients from ventilators, harassing doctors and
detaining protesters.
The government has blamed the protests and ensuing violence on armed
foreign-backed “terrorists.”
Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour denied reports of treatment
being prevented or protesters being taken from hospitals, calling them
“untrue, but also fundamentally impossible.” He was quoted in state
media as saying all injured were treated “without any discrimination or
interference over political opinions.” The Iranian mission at the United
Nations did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the
doctors’ accounts.
Doctors tried to protect the wounded
The crackdown, which reached its height on Jan. 8 and 9, was the
deadliest since the Islamic Republic took power in 1979. Details have
been slow to emerge because of internet restrictions imposed by
authorities.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency says it confirmed more than 7,000
deaths and that it is investigating thousands more. The government has
acknowledged more than 3,000 killed, though it has undercounted or not
reported fatalities from past unrest.
Once the crackdown began, the doctor in Rasht said he worked through 66
hours of hell, moving each day to a different facility to help with the
wounded — first a trauma center, then a hospital and finally a private
clinic.
Armed agents brought in wounded protesters and stood watch over them as
staff worked, the doctor said. When it came time to discharge a patient,
he said, “they would take anyone who was confirmed to be a protester.”
The doctor said he and other staff tried to hide wounded protesters by
recording false diagnoses in hospital records.
“We knew that no matter what we did for the patients, they wouldn’t be
safe once they stepped out of the hospital,” he said.
The AP could not independently confirm the doctor’s account of events at
the hospital in Rasht. But it conformed with AP’s other reporting.
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This image from a video verified by AP shows Iranian security forces
shooting into the courtyard outside the Imam Khomeini Hospital, in
Ilam, Iran, Jan. 4, 2026. (UGC via AP, File)
AP’s reporting focused on what happened at four hospitals, a
snapshot of the Iranian security forces’ activity. Mnemonic gathered
dozens of videos, posts and other accounts it says showed forces
were present in and around nine hospitals, in some cases firing guns
and tear gas. Mnemonic has been preserving digital evidence of human
rights violations in Iran since 2022, creating with partners an
archive of more than 2 million documents.
One video verified by AP shows security agents breaking through
glass entrance doors into Imam Khomeini Hospital in the western city
of Ilam. They then barged through the halls with their guns, yelling
at people.
The Health Ministry told state media it was investigating the
incident, saying it was committed to protecting medical centers,
staff and patients.
Treating the wounded in hiding
On the night of Jan. 8, a 37-year-old general surgeon was out for
dinner in Tehran when he received a call from a professional friend,
an ophthalmologist. The fear in her voice made clear she needed his
help urgently. She gave him an address.
Just before midnight, he drove to the address, a clinic for cosmetic
procedures. Inside, he found the lobby transformed into a trauma
ward, with more than 30 wounded men, women, children and elderly on
the couches and blood-covered floor, shouting and crying,
The surgeon spent nearly four days there, treating more than 90
people, he estimates. At first, it was just him, the
ophthalmologist, a dentist and two nurses. Eventually, the surgeon
summoned three other doctors to help.
He used cardboard boxes and pieces of soft metal as splints for
broken bones. With no anesthesia or strong painkillers, he used
weaker suppository analgesics. The clinic had no blood supplies or
transfusion capabilities.
They couldn’t send patients to hospitals for fear they’d be
arrested.
A young man in his 20s had been shot with live ammunition in his
elbow, shattering it. The surgeon sutured the wounds but knew the
arm would have to be amputated.
A family of four — a mother, father and their 8- and 10-year-old
children — were all riddled with pellets, the surgeon said.
On the morning of Jan. 9, the surgeon reached out to doctors he
trusted to refer patients to them. First he had to make sure to
remove all bullets and pellets from their bodies so they wouldn’t be
detained at the hospital. He wrote referral letters saying the
patients had been in car accidents.
None of the wounded died at the clinic, he said. The AP could not
independently confirm the surgeon’s account of events at the clinic.
Doctors targeted for arrest
Since Jan. 9, at least 79 health care professionals have been
detained, including a dozen medical students, according to Homa
Fathi, an Iranian dentist pursuing a Ph.D. in Canada and member of
IIPHA who has been monitoring Iranian government action against
health professionals since 2022.
Around 30 have been released, most on bail, but many of them still
face charges, including one accused of “waging war against God,” a
charge that carries a death penalty, Fathi said.
The surgeon who treated protesters at the secret clinic said he was
surprised security forces never stormed that location to make
arrests.
But arrests have come since. Two health care workers who volunteered
at the clinic were seized from their homes, the surgeon said.
“I am waiting, too.”
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