A man admitted to the Celia Sánchez Manduley Hospital in Manzanillo, Granma, remained unattended and covered in flies, as the medical staff did not attend to his situation due to the lack of a companion.
The independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada exposed this on his social media, after receiving a citizen complaint and images showing the state of neglect in which the patient was found.
"That man was in the Hospital's Emergency Room, full of flies. He had eaten and they were not able to take the tray away from him. Nobody wants to work," the person who sent the images told the journalist.
Mayeta Labrada indicated that the complaint focused on the staff of Public Health in the municipality of Manzanillo and their "indolence" in attending to the needs of "hospitalized patients who do not have family."
"These regrettable photos were taken at the Emergency Department of the Provincial Teaching Hospital Celia Sánchez Manduley," the informant explained, requesting citizen collaboration to identify the patient and his health condition.
The case is reminiscent of that of an elderly woman who, at the end of February, caused a stir on social media when images were published revealing the state of neglect that many elderly people in the country endure.
The journalist Ernesto Morales was the one who published the photos of the elderly woman who arrived at the Clinical Surgical Hospital "La Dependiente" in Havana, full of ants and worms, and died half an hour later.
After the commotion caused by the complaint, the Cuban authorities were forced to respond and reported that the elderly woman died from Norwegian scabies (a severe variant of common scabies, known as crusted scabies).
According to Morales, two other men had arrived at the hospital in the same condition and had also passed away. All the patients came from the 28 de enero Nursing Home, located on Dolores street between 10th and 11th, Lawton, in the Diez de Octubre municipality.
In his post, he shared a video showing the woman's face completely covered with worms and some black bugs that looked like ants, which were also on the sheet that covered her from the neck down. In the images, it was clear how the animals were walking on the elderly woman.
The deterioration of public health services is a harsh reality that more and more Cubans are experiencing. The lack of investments, the massive hiring of doctors for missions abroad, and the migration crisis, among other reasons, have led to the collapse of the healthcare system on the island.
The lack of medication and medical supplies is compounded by the deterioration of hospitals and infrastructure of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) and the loss of values among professionals whose training has declined in quality in recent times.
In March, a Cuban mother denounced on social media the mistreatment she received at a hospital in Havana, which almost caused her to lose a hand. User Yanet Iglecias Díaz recounted the difficulties she experienced at the Miguel Enríquez Hospital, known as "La Benéfica," from which she claims to have left insulted.
"I arrived at 3:00 in the afternoon, they kept me there until 11:00 at night to take an X-ray. Then the X-ray technician didn't want to give me the X-ray," he said.
The complainant states that the cast placed on her was not done properly and that "three days later, my whole hand was green and even more swollen than before. It seemed like my hand and part of my arm were going to rot."
In mid-February, an elderly Cuban woman was subjected to mistreatment at the Calixto García Hospital in Havana after arriving with a hip fracture that was not well taken care of. The woman was laid on a stretcher without a mattress, on the spring frame.
Hello family, neglect and hatred towards the people have reached rock bottom. The dictatorship has forgotten about its people, its children, and its elderly for over 65 years. This happened the day before yesterday at Calixto García Hospital," denounced an activist with photographs of the regrettable event.
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