The Cuban authorities were forced to respond to the case of aelderly woman who died in a nursing home from scabies Norway (severe variant of common scabies, known as crusted scabies), a terrible story that spread on the Internet and reveals the conditions of neglect suffered by many elderly people in the country.
This week, the journalistErnesto Morales published the photos of an elderly woman who on Monday arrived at the "La Dependiente" Clinical Surgical Hospital, Havana,full of ants and worms, and within half an hour it died.
According to him, two other men arrived at the hospital in the same situation and also died. The patients were at the January 28 Nursing Home, located on Dolores Street between 10 and 11, Lawton, Diez de Octubre municipality.
Morales shared a video in which you can see thethe woman's face, completely covered by worms and black bugs that look like ants, which are also on the sheet that covers her from the neck down. It is clearly seen howanimals walk on it.
"I can't explain how abhorrent it is to let them get into that state of decomposition," he said.
After the commotion caused by the news, the Municipal Health Directorate issued ause in which he reveals that the old woman's name wasAdelaida Zamora Torriente, was 90 years old and he had been at the home for five and a half months, where he arrived "due to social criteria" and with problems of high blood pressure, arthritis, dorsal kyphosis, gastritis, malnutrition and disability.
According to the post, in these years the grandmother maintained "a favorable evolution, without incidents with the treatment for her conditions," until on Friday, February 3, the dermatologist diagnosed her with Norwegian scabies and chronic dermatitis, without being able to confirm the source of infection. "to thethere are no other cases in the home with this diagnosis, nor with similar symptoms".
According to the note, the patient was prescribed a bath treatment with plenty of warm water and soap, permethrin cream or petroleum jelly, and hydrocortisone and triamcinolone to improve the skin, in addition to washing the bedding with hot water. and pajamas, "since the home has conditions to fulfill it," says the text.
That same day, the home care doctor confirmed that Adelaida had been deteriorating and decided to inform the family (her only daughter), an interview that took place on Monday, February 5.
"On Friday, February 9, Adelaida woke up feeling markedly weak, drowsy, with decreased muscle strength and incoherent speech, which is presumably interpreted as ischemia. Given this condition, her attending doctor diagnosed her with an ongoing cerebrovascular disease," adds the information.
The note indicates that the elderly woman was referred to La Dependiente hospital, and while there with her daughter, she died around 11:00 am, as a result of the neurological condition.
According to the Health Directorate, the home was visited and it was found that it has good hygiene conditions and the elderly appear adequate, that the patient received good care, and that her daughter was satisfied and admitted that her deterioration was very rapid.
"Norwegian scabies is characterized by a generalized rash of scaly, erythematous papules and plaques (...)The remains shown in the image are not ants, but part of the lesions (scabs) caused by hyperkeratosis," he details.
Cuban Internet users reacted with indignation to the official response of the Ministry of Public Health.
"I don't know about you, but I saw the video and I don't know anything about medicine and Norwegian scabies and such... But whatever the lady had on her, she was walking," said one.
"Bedbug? No, sorry, Norwegian scabies... Elegance above all. You have no forgiveness, neither in this life nor in the next," said another.
"They are no longer ashamed. A children's story. Dying of scabies in the 'medical power,'" a third ironically said.
"What a lack of respect, but also of humanity and empathy. That lady had bugs crawling on her, but she was also decomposing alive. (...) Thieves, disgusting murderers. They condemned doctors who tried to save lives without resources and Now they let rotten old people die with bugs in an obvious state of putrefaction," questioned a young woman.
It is known that nursing homes in Cuba do not have sufficient resources to care for residents. They do not have clothing to give to the inmates, food, medicine and hygiene supplies are scarce, a situation that is often aggravated by the petty and abusive behavior of the workers at these centers.
In May 2021, an elderly man fractured his hip in a nursing home in the Matanzas municipality of Perico and was admitted to a hospital in Colón, where he spent more than 10 days enduring pain andwithout being operated on, completely neglected by the asylum.
"He has not died thanks to the humanism and solidarity of the companions of other patients in the place and those responsible for the ward," denounced the activist Félix Navarro, who specified that "the Perico nursing home has not guaranteed a staff so that I can be with him, full time, caring for him.
In March of that year, a resident of Cienfuegos reported the terrible situation in which he found his mother, an elderly woman who wasinterned in an asylum in Cumanayagua, where she caught bedsores and even scabies (scabies).
The complainant explained that his mother had been referred to the hospital with bedsores in poor condition, rigid, with scabies, hemoglobin at 6, with fixed eyesight and urinating and pooping.
"I wonder, what are they doing - if they don't have medicines - in those nursing homes that say on television that they don't lack anything, that the old people are well fed, that they have all kinds of medicines? That's a lie, "That's uncertain. They don't even bathe those old people, the proof is there," he said in a video sent to this editorial office.
In September 2020, a Cuban resident outside the Island asked for help on social networks to locate her mother, an elderly intern in theHermanas Giral Home, in Marianao, where the hygiene and food conditions were terrible.
"He has contracted scabies, lice, and on one occasion I removed 50 lice; they crushed his foot with a metal chair and his foot turned black, which was not cut off by a miracle from God," the woman explained.
"He has lost consciousness on a few occasions because they give him insulin with a poor and scarce diet. Imagine that they give him half a loaf of bread with two fingers of yogurt in his snacks, and when one of the two is missing, they give him the one that beech," he added.
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