The Canadian doctor who treated a Nova Scotia soldier killed in Afghanistan and wrote about the experience is facing criticism from the young man's family.

Dr. Kevin Patterson's operating room account of the attempt to save the life of Cpl. Kevin Megeney at Kandahar airfield has disturbed some family members.
(Random House/Melious Photography)

Dr. Kevin Patterson recalls the night 25-year-old Cpl. Kevin Megeney was brought into the hospital at Kandahar airfield in an article written for the July-August edition of Mother Jones magazine.

Patterson writes in explicit detail about how he and other medics tried, and ultimately failed, to save the life of the reservist from Stellarton, N.S., who was shot in the chest last March.

He describes how a fellow doctor opened the soldier's chest and together they tried to stop the bleeding. Patterson also describes the moment they realized he had died.

Story published 'before we even knew about it'

The Megeney family was away on vacation when the magazine sent the household an advance copy of the article.

"I just wish I had seen it first," Karen Megeney, the dead soldier's mother, told the Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper on Friday.

"It was on the stands before we even knew about it," she said.
 
Clara Jeffrey, the co-editor of Mother Jones, said the magazine sent Megeney's parents, uncle and sisters a letter ahead of publication, informing them that the diary "did contain a scene involving the tragic death."

Jeffrey said she spoke to Megeney's mother at length before the article came out.

"[Mrs. Megeney] assured me that the family would like to see the article, and that she was a nurse and would read it before any other members of her family; she said it would help to have closure to know more about what happened."

Jeffrey said some family members had expressed the desire to write to Dr. Patterson to express their appreciation of his efforts to save the corporal's life.

The soldier's uncle, George Megeney, is quoted in the Globe and Mail newspaper as saying the doctor "was way out of line" in writing the article.

"Certainly the family are not happy, not at all," he said. "It was very graphic. In my opinion, he breached doctor-patient confidentiality."

The military has described the death as resulting from non-enemy action. Sources have said Cpl. Megeney was shot in his tent by a member of his own platoon.

Patterson writes that a bullet "entered his right chest, just below the armpit."

Five months after the incident, military police are still investigating.