Where is the Oxygen in Cuba, the Medical Power?
By Ammi
HAVANA TIMES – I have a link with the town of Batabano located south of Havana. There I left, on the one hand, my worst memories of pre-university in a rural boarding school, and on the other, many friends with whom I have maintained communication for long years.
With the aid of social networks in Cuba, more ties between us have been revived. Video calls make constant interaction between everyone possible.
However, one of those mornings has been different. From one of those people, I didn’t receive the usual sticker of the cup of coffee, nor good morning. A bunch of words tinged with pain, helplessness and above all resignation, replaced the loving greeting I was used to.
It happens that my friend’s mother underwent surgery for a brain tumor a couple months ago and was immediately sent home from a Havana hospital, since the conditions could be complicated if she were infected with the coronavirus.
So far so good, but after two months of rest at home, her mother has presented certain complications, so they have had to go to the only polyclinic in town.
That day they gave her oxygen when they noticed the visible lack of air, but it didn’t last long.
A person arrived who had been stabbed and the oxygen was withdrawn from the old woman, alleging that it was only for extreme cases of chronic asthmatics.
The doctors and nurses attended to the wounded man and left my friend’s mother literally lying on a stretcher without any medical attention.
The family had to go to the house and find a wheelchair to transport her.
They went to ask for help at the Communist Party office and they recommended she go to the polyclinic to request an oxygen tank.
She was greeted by a nurse with a bad temper who told her that they should have requested it earlier.
Did the family have to have anticipated the health status of one of its members without having received previous recommendations from any doctor?
Her case had to be closely followed by institutions and doctors responsible for monitoring her health and other needs.
Even after this complication, so far she has not received any help from any institution. And we are talking about a person with brain damage who needs even disposable diapers.
How long are we going to continue with the cheap propaganda that Cuba is a medical power, if we can’t take care of our patients?
The Castro sycophants being largely ignorant, choose to believe the propaganda pumped out by the Castro regime that as Ammi writes, they are “a medical power”. They choose to believe for example that Cuba is being a donor, when supplying medical services to other countries through those much publicized “brigades”. But in Portugal, the charge made by Cuba for a doctor is $55,000 US per annum (twice the per capita GDP of that country).
The Cuban regime chooses not to reveal that medical students in Cuba receive compulsory indoctrination classes in Marx/Engels/Lenin to assist in spreading the communist gospel, when working under contract in other countries. Theirs is a dual function, with but one purpose.
Moses described the conditions in a hospital in Havana, imagine those that exist in the remote rural areas, missing door handles, broken windows, cracked tiles, beds with broken springs and unavailability of the drugs which the doctors would like to prescribe. But in my experience, the medical staff and doctors manage despite those difficulties, to provide good service, for which I personally remain grateful. They merit better conditions and more consideration by the Castro regime.
I am sad but not surprised by this article. Several years ago, before COVID-19, before Trump, even before the death of Fidel, a close Cuban family member had surgery in a hospital in Havana. I wrote a detailed article for HT at the time describing the physical condition of the hospital including bed linens, towels, room lighting and bathroom facilities. In a nutshell, deplorable. My wife brought bed sheets, towels, toilet paper and food for our loved one and paid doctors and nurses extra in order to ensure attention would be paid to our family member. Every time I read a comment about Cuban healthcare being the envy of the world, I could vomit. Of if I did vomit and I was in a Cuban hospital, I would probably have to clean it up myself.