"[The prisoner] was informed that dying is not permitted," - from the medical log for one of the younger hunger-strikers at Gitmo.
The methods needed to prevent hunger-strikers from dying at Gitmo have gotten progressively more drastic:
According to al-Shehri's records and Gitmo doctors, a typical [force]-feeding lasts about two hours, with the inmate left in the restraint chair [or "padded cell on wheels"] for roughly 45 minutes afterward. During the feeding period, the prisoner will receive as much as 1.5 liters of formula, which, in the case of hunger strikers, can be more than their stomachs can comfortably hold. This can produce what is euphemistically called "dumping syndrome," an uncomfortable, even painful bout of nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea, and shortness of breath. And those are precisely the symptoms that al-Shehri and many other force-fed prisoners have reported to their lawyers.
My review of a book analyzing 35,000 pages of FOIAed government documents about medical practices at Gitmo and elsewhere in the war can be read here.