Cuban mother denounces lack of resources to care for her son in Cienfuegos hospital

The complaints about the worsening health conditions in Cuba, which include inadequate medical care, are frequently repeated on social media, as is the case of a Cuban mother who has turned to that medium to highlight her son's situation.

"Today I want to make this post, as I am desperate," this mother begins saying in a post shared in the Facebook group "Revolico Cienfuegos."

The woman claims that after her son suffered a fall on August 6, a series of difficulties in health care have begun, especially at the Gustavo Aldereguía Hospital, where he was referred.

The blow received by the boy "caused him bleeding from the foreskin," and the doctors told him that he had damaged his urethra.

"In the hospital, there were no medications to treat him," the woman reports, adding that they had to buy "everything from gloves, trocars, to the catheters." She mentions that they had to pay 4,500 pesos for each 500ml vial of tranexamic acid.

However, the child's bleeding did not stop and yet the doctors decided to discharge him after a week.

"They readmit him because he had a fever, he stopped in the multi-specialty unit with a cardiac arrest, he had a slight improvement and they sent him to the ward, three days later they discharge him again and he feels worse the next day," the mother specifies.

In the post, the woman claims that her son's condition is not well, as he continues to leak fluid from where the catheter is placed.

"The doctors say it's normal. I don't think it's normal for someone in her condition to ooze pus," the affected person complained.

"I need urgent help, I have requested a transfer to another hospital and they are refusing. If my son stays in that hospital, he is going to die," the mother said in a cry of despair.

The health sector in Cuba is facing severe impacts due to shortages of supplies and the exodus of professionals, a situation that has been acknowledged by Cuban leaders.

"In the face of the lack of supplies and medications, the best response we can give to our population in such difficult times is the quality of services. We will have shortages; we will continue to have a shortage of medications," stated the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel during a meeting at the beginning of this year, in which he revealed that the shortage of medications on the Island would continue this year.

There have been numerous reports about the terrible condition of hospital facilities in Cuba.

Images taken at the "Antonio María Béguez César" Children's Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, known as La Colonia, were shared by independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada.

The photos show: dirty bathrooms to the point of filth, broken furniture, non-functioning sanitary facilities, and terrible food for the patients, which make up the landscape that sick children and their parents experience.

The same at the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital, where patients arriving with shortness of breath cannot be treated due to a lack of oxygen tanks, as the existing ones are reserved for severe cases.