and alcohol, and making them insert catheters in each other

A Virginia state board revoked the license of a former US Army doctor Friday, finding that he plied students with hypnotic drugs and alcohol during battlefield-trauma training, and performed dangerous procedures, including intentionally inducing shock.

The doctor, John Henry Hagmann, was cited for training he provided in 2012 and 2013 in Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and Great Britain. Students testified Friday that Hagmann also performed penile nerve blocks and instructed them to insert catheters into one another's genitals without proper training or medical need.

'The evidence is so overwhelming and so bizarre as to almost shock the conscience of a prosecutor who's been doing this for 26 years,' Assistant Attorney General Frank Pedrotty told the Virginia Board of Medicine.

Sanctioned: A Virginia state board revoked the license of Dr. John Hagmann (R), pictured here around 2010 teaching a course in treating battlefield trauma, citing 'abhorrent and abnormal' practices

In a 'statement of particulars' outlining the board's case, Hagmann photographed and manipulated a drunk student's genitals; told students to quickly consume alcohol and then injected them with a hallucinogen to test its effects on their cognitive skills.'

Two students provided the board with pictures of chest scars they received when procedures went awry. Three students testified that others became violently ill or began hallucinating after Hagmann gave them ketamine.

'What we're seeing is way off the charts,' said board chair Kevin O'Connor. 'Quite honestly, I'm speechless.'

The evidence is so overwhelming and so bizarre as to almost shock the conscience of a prosecutor who's been doing this for 26 years. Assistant Attorney General Frank Pedrotty

Hagmann, who did not appear at Friday's hearing, has told Reuters that he didn't violate any rules, nobody was harmed and that Virginia authorities have misapplied rules that pertain to patients, not trainees.

'There were no "patients" and no "physician-patient relationships" involved — only students undergoing training,' Hagmann said. 'In 25 years no one has ever been harmed. What military training — or even most sports — can report that?'

His attorney, Ramon Rodriguez, said he had notified the board his client wouldn't be present.

'Despite having advanced knowledge of this fact and other concerns to reschedule the hearing, the Board of Medicine has decided to proceed in Dr. Hagmann's absence,' Rodriguez wrote in an email to The Associated Press ahead of the meeting.

'This is so abhorrent and abnormal,' testified John Prescott, chief academic officer, Association of American Medical Colleges. 'In a combat setting, I have a hard time - I mean, there's no indication you would ever need a penile block, ever.'

Reuters reported Wednesday that military officials had long known about Hagmann's methods. A four-star general briefly halted them in 2005, but the doctor resumed his government contracts, earning at least $10.5million since then.

Army Col. Neil Page (L) and medical students who were identified as patient C, patient A and individual 2 (L to R) prepare to testify before the Virginia Board of Medicine regarding the medical practices of Dr John Henry Hagmann, in Richmond, Virginia June 19

'Sick': The board found that Hagmann plied students with hypnotic drugs during battlefield-trauma training and performed dangerous procedures, including intentionally inducing shock

Colonel Neil Page, who investigated the matter, said Dr Hagmann crossed a line in his training

Two male students testified Friday about private rectal exams. One said that he gave Hagmann an exam that the doctor filmed. The other described regret that he allowed Hagmann to perform a rectal exam on him.

'I can't imagine a worse violation of trust,' said the student, whose name, like other trainees who testified, was shielded from the public. 'There's no excuse for the way this course was run.'

Colonel Neil Page, who investigated the matter for the Uniformed Service University for the Health Sciences, the military medical school, testified that Hagmann's defense that the students volunteered for procedures is irrelevant because they were intoxicated.

'There was a line that was crossed,' Page said.

Hagmann had separately come under scrutiny from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The Norfolk-based group had been looking into how his business, Deployment Medicine International, used more than 14,000 pigs during its trauma training and has asked the Defense Department to stop doing business with Hagmann.

DMI says it has trained physicians, combat medics, soldiers, law enforcement and bodyguards for more than 15 years. A company brochure posted online claims DMI is the single largest trainer of U.S. military forces in operational medicine. Hagmann is a retired Army doctor.

DMI is based in Gig Harbor, Washington, but Hagmann conducts training in several locations, including a 32-acre farm near Partlow, Virginia, about 40 miles north of Richmond.

There, state investigators said he conducted a 'cognition lab.' That consisted of telling participants in 2013 to complete a cognitive test before and after drinking eight ounces of bourbon in less than 30 minutes, and encouraging them to chase the liquor with beer.

State investigators also say Hagmann told students in 2012 at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, to drink large amounts of liquor and beer. He then injected them with ketamine, a hallucinogen, so he could assess the effects of the substances on their cognition.

Chest drilling: A student identified as 'Patient C' (pictured) allegedly received a sternal intraosseous infusion, an invasive procedure that involves drilling a hole in the upper chest to provide fluids to injured patients

The report also says Hagmann conducted 'shock labs' at the university, which consisted of withdrawing blood from medical students, monitoring them for severe blood and fluid loss that can make the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body and can cause organs to stop working, and then auto-transfusing their blood back to them.

In 2013, the report says, students were encouraged to practice inserting catheters into one another after watching a video on the procedure at Hagmann's 20-acre facility in Pink Hill, North Carolina.

When students became reluctant to participate, Hagmann volunteered to be the first subject and made demeaning remarks to men who didn't volunteer, according to the report.

That July, several students reported being told to drink at least 8 ounces of rum in 10 minutes as part of a 'cognition lab' and then being injected with ketamine to experience its effects.

Out of work: Since the damning report by Reuters was released last week, Hagmann's (pictured in 1980) company DMI has been dropped as a military contractor for the Navy and Special Forces

Two students who received ketamine were given a local anesthetic typically used for procedures such as circumcisions.

That same year, Hagmann and a student were drinking beer when he asked the student questions about his uncircumcised penis, masturbation and sex.

He also asked to photograph the student's penis, and the student said he was drunk and didn't feel he could refuse, the report said. Hagmann purportedly wanted to use the photos as a 'training tool.'

One allegation in the Virginia report cites a July 2013 session at Hagmann's Virginia farm during which a student identified only as 'Patient C' received a sternal intraosseous infusion, an invasive procedure that involves drilling a hole in the upper chest to provide fluids to injured patients.

'After making an incision  Dr. Hagmann or a course participant removed the device with needle drivers, and according to Patient C, called for course participants who had never sutured a live person to use the opportunity to get some practice,' the report said. 'Subsequently, when several of the course participants began suturing, Dr. Hagmann left the area, claiming that he could not bear to watch.'

Hagmann denies that he left the room.

An Army doctor, lieutenant colonel and medical professor during the 1990s, Hagmann was part of a revolution in battlefield-trauma care. By the time the Iraq and Afghanistan wars began, medical advances made it possible for regular troops to apply tourniquets, chest seals and other devices to wounded comrades before medics arrived.

The techniques saved lives, and a year after Hagmann retired from the Army in 2000, he founded DMI and began to work with the military to teach such procedures to thousands of troops, often at his farms in North Carolina and Virginia.

In 2005, as the wars raged, an inspection team representing General Brown visited a Hagmann class, according to military spokesman Kenneth McGraw. The Special Operations commander, Brown supervised some of the U.S. military's most elite units, including the Navy SEALs, Green Berets and Army Rangers.

Hagmann (L) is seen being presented the William P. Clements, Jr. Outstanding Uniformed Educator Award by Dr. Sam Nixon (R) during the US Military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences 1989 Commencement Exercises in this USUHS handout file photo taken in Washington May 20, 1989

His inspection team returned from the visit and reported 'a number of problems, including deviations from the Special Operations standard of combat trauma care,' according to a memo Brown sent to subordinates on December 9, 2005. This included 'potentially hazardous physiological demonstrations being conducted on volunteers from the course attendees,' the memo said.

The memo did not elaborate and Brown told Reuters he could not remember the specific concerns. But the medical team's findings prompted the four-star general to order that all Army, Navy and Air Force units under his command immediately stop using private contractors for combat-wound training.

The general created a list of new guidelines that banned techniques such as inducing shock or having trainees perform certain medical procedures on one another. After agreeing to the new rules, Hagmann and other contractors were to be reviewed every two years.

Meanwhile, the Navy performed its own review. One Navy officer who was involved, Saenz, told Reuters that he prohibited Hagmann from providing training on his base.