APP GRATIS

Cuban cancer patient asks for urgent help: "I've been without treatment for two months"

Doctors told Leonardo that he had only a few months to live if he did not receive urgent treatment. He does not give up, he fights for his health and is inspired by the love he feels for his three daughters.

Leonardo Montes de Oca Betancourt © Leonardo Montes de Oca Betancourt para CiberCuba
Leonardo Montes de Oca Betancourt Photo © Leonardo Montes de Oca Betancourt for CiberCuba

This article is from 1 year ago

The Cuban guyLeonardo Montes de Oca Betancourt, a cancer patient, made an urgent call for help because he has not been able to undergo treatment for two months because he does not have the medicines.

"What I haven't been able to find is theserum, ifosfamide and mesna. It's urgent because I'm in palliative care. I don't have treatment. I am abandoned to my fate. I feel like I'm wasting away. This is not life, knowing that I am going to die and not having treatment," he confessed toCyberCuba.

Leonardo resides in the La Playa neighborhood, in the Matanzas province. In 2019, Cuban doctors diagnosed him with afibromyxoid carcinoma in the right maxillary sinus.

Medical opinion of Leonardo Montes de Oca

He has been operated on twice. The second surgical intervention was on November 23, 2021 at the Comandante Faustino Pérez Clinical Surgical Hospital, in Matanzas.

In addition to cytostatic sera, use the usual medications:nystatin suspension with thediphenhydramine, thedexamethasone and on two occasions he has had to takeantibiotics as thecephalexin because the operation festers.

These medicationshas resolved them by paying a premium, but they disappear again and again. He cannot find specific medicines for cancer anywhere, not even in hospitals, which generates desperation and anguish because doctors have warned him that "his life span is shortening."

Leonardo Montes de Oca Betancourt and his daughters

He has three daughters. The oldest is 28 years old, but the second (16 years old) and the youngest (10 years old) depend on him financially.

"They are my reason for living and fighting, becausestrength, will and desire to live I have. Time is against me due to lack of those medications. "I don't have any other family members, I need the serums to continue living and protect my family," he said.

Theifosfamide It is a medicine used in combination with other drugs to treat cancer.Meaty It is used to reduce the risk of hemorrhagic cystitis, a condition that causes inflammation of the bladder in people receiving ifosfamide.

Regarding cancer, this Cuban father explained that it isa terrible disease and her family is destroyed, because just a month ago they lost the mother of their eldest daughter because of this. The woman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and only survived three months.

Leonardo is a bus driver. For 35 years he has worked in the Culture sector. He still keeps working whenever he has the chance.

People who wish to contact this Cuban to offer help with anti-cancer medications can contact him by email.leonardomontesdeocabetancourt@gmail.com or by phone +53 5 289 0852.

Thelack of medicines in Cuba It affects hundreds of cancer patients throughout the country. At the beginning of March it was knowncase of the young José Miguel Fernández Lence who suffers from a rare malignant tumor known as Ewing's sarcoma.

Given the shortage of medicines, his family opened a fundraising campaign for him to be treated in the United States. HeNational Institute of Oncology of Havana He can't do anything else for the young man, because the doctors have no resources to cure patients.

What do you think?

COMMENT

Filed in:

Gretchen Sanchez

Branded Content Writer at CiberCuba. Doctor in Sciences from the University of Alicante and Graduate in Sociocultural Studies.


Do you have something to report?
Write to CiberCuba:

editores@cibercuba.com

 +1 786 3965 689