Stuart Christie in the Yeserías prison hospital, Madrid (1965)
Dublin Core
Title
Stuart Christie in the Yeserías prison hospital, Madrid (1965)
Description
Stuart Christie: 'A priest came to see me before my operation. This worried me in case he’d come to perform the last rites (and me a 'Proddy'), but it was simply a friendly visit to his 'flock'. I just hoped that if ...I did make it through the operation I would still have a nose.
The operation reminded me of my tonsillectomy on a Glasgow kitchen table at the age of 5. I was ushered into what looked like a gynaecological chair, while the nursing staff, all prisoners, strapped my wrists, chest and legs. The seat was then cranked back until my head was at 45 degrees to the floor and my feet pointing at the ceiling.
A masked surgeon looking like Laurence Olivier playing the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man suddenly loomed over me wielding two stainless steel corkscrews that he proceeded to manoeuvre up my nostrils and crank open as though he was opening a bottle of claret. With a flourish, a large chrome syringe appeared in his hand, which he jabbed into the soft palate of my mouth like a matador in for the faena.
As the freezing Novocain trickled down my gullet I could still feel everything, particularly pain. A stainless steel chisel then appeared in his hand, which he promptly poked into my nostril. Suddenly, what looked like an ice pick appeared in other hand of this latter-day Ramón Mercader. He swung back and then began battering his way into my brain cavity. Wincing under the relentless hammer blows I began to feel some sympathy for Leon Trotsky. Was this man clearing my sinuses or was he planning to trepan me to open up my ‘Third Eye’?'
The operation reminded me of my tonsillectomy on a Glasgow kitchen table at the age of 5. I was ushered into what looked like a gynaecological chair, while the nursing staff, all prisoners, strapped my wrists, chest and legs. The seat was then cranked back until my head was at 45 degrees to the floor and my feet pointing at the ceiling.
A masked surgeon looking like Laurence Olivier playing the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man suddenly loomed over me wielding two stainless steel corkscrews that he proceeded to manoeuvre up my nostrils and crank open as though he was opening a bottle of claret. With a flourish, a large chrome syringe appeared in his hand, which he jabbed into the soft palate of my mouth like a matador in for the faena.
As the freezing Novocain trickled down my gullet I could still feel everything, particularly pain. A stainless steel chisel then appeared in his hand, which he promptly poked into my nostril. Suddenly, what looked like an ice pick appeared in other hand of this latter-day Ramón Mercader. He swung back and then began battering his way into my brain cavity. Wincing under the relentless hammer blows I began to feel some sympathy for Leon Trotsky. Was this man clearing my sinuses or was he planning to trepan me to open up my ‘Third Eye’?'
Creator
Stuart Christie
Date
1965
Collection
Citation
Stuart Christie, “Stuart Christie in the Yeserías prison hospital, Madrid (1965),” Stuart Christie Memorial Archive, accessed May 9, 2025, https://stuartchristie.maydayrooms.org/items/show/398.