A Cuban woman made a desperate call for help from the hospital where she has been admitted for over a month following a femur operation, and denounced the terrible care she is receiving, which has resulted in a severe skin ulceration.
Maite Alonso Companioni, 42 years old, made a live broadcast from the "Fructuoso Rodríguez" Orthopedic Hospital in Havana, in which she called attention to the serious situation that endangers her life.
After convalescing for a month and 10 days in that hospital center - where she underwent surgery on her femur - Companioni has suffered the appearance of several bedsores on her body, a result of the healthcare staff's neglect of the patient's mobility.
According to the patient, after suffering a femur fracture, she was operated on at the Fructuoso Rodríguez hospital and got infected with a bacteria. Now the patient requires care for her sores, but the doctors cannot treat her ulcers in the proper room for that because the air conditioning is not working.
Warning of images that may hurt your sensitivity.
"I need help, please. They are going to close the room because the air conditioning is broken, but there is another room. Please, come to get me from the Fajardo [hospital] so they can put me in the room. I'm dying, I'm feeling terrible and they want to send me home," the woman pleaded in a Facebook post.
According to her account, she has been suffering from a fever for 21 days, severe anemia, and no one is addressing her needs. The doctors told her they would transfer her to the Manuel Fajardo University Clinical Surgical Hospital, where they could clean and treat her sores, but no one comes to take her, and at the Orthopedic Hospital, they are already talking about sending her home in those conditions.
"Here the director passes every morning, the deputy director, the doctors have good personal treatment, but this is disorganized, there are no medicines, and I am dying," Companioni said in her live stream, breaking down in tears.
The collapse of Cuban Public Health and the increasing number of patients with necrotic tissues.
The situation of patients with long-term hospital admissions in Cuba is precarious, and many of them are susceptible to the development of skin ulcers due to a lack of medication and the care they require.
A pressure sore or ulcer is a lesion of the skin and underlying tissues with loss of skin substance caused by prolonged pressure or friction. It is a serious and common problem in elderly individuals.
In April, the young Ángel Ernesto, bedridden since 2018 due to an accident, asked for help to obtain the medications and medical supplies needed to improve his quality of life.
In a desperate call through social media, the 20-year-old boy requested medical supplies, 30 mm urinary condoms, and anti-bed sore ointments.
Ángel Ernesto thanked Osleidy Catala, who provided him with what he needed most, an anti-decubitus mattress, something vital for people confined to bed and one of the many resources that the government in Cuba is unable to supply. "It's fundamental so I don't get bed sores," said the young man.
A similar situation was experienced by Lester Domínguez, the teenager who was attacked with a machete in Holguín and who, during his admission to the pediatric hospital in that province, asked for help to treat the sore that had developed.
In addition to the Silver Sulfadiazine and Nitrofurozone, the boy's family also requested a type of inflatable mattress [anti-decubitus mattress] to prevent skin chafing.
In February 2023, the elderly Carmen Leonides Botana Fernández, a resident of Havana, received help from several Cuban activists who became interested in her case after learning that she had waited for hours for an ambulance to take her to the hospital.
The 87-year-old woman was diagnosed with severe dehydration, pressure sores on her body, and other ailments, which prompted the activists to mobilize and seek supplies and medicines to care for her.
"The surgeon debrided all the necrotic tissue, and the tests also showed that he suffers from severe bronchopneumonia. Aside from the daily treatments that need to be done, he was given a course of Rosephin," wrote Arián Cruz Álvarez (Tata Poet) on his Facebook account.
It was also learned that Botana Fernández received assistance with an anti-decubitus bed, disposable adult diapers, creams, and food.
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