Adela Amparo Riverón Vega is a Cuban mother from San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, who is seeking help so that her 11-year-old daughter Rocío can receive proper treatment for the orbital lymphangioma (tumor in the left eye) she has suffered from since she was eleven months old.
In statements to CiberCuba, Riverón expresses regret that the girl has not undergone an MRI in Cuba for three years, a procedure she used to have every six months to assess the progress of her illness.
According to her, her daughter has been in crisis for three months. "I see her getting worse each time," she tells this platform and expresses her fear that the precariousness of the public health system on the Island could lead to her child's situation deteriorating further.
"My daughter has received care in several hospitals in the country: at William Soler, Juan Manuel Márquez, and Ramón Pando Ferrer, where she is currently being monitored. I requested a contrast CT scan because I hadn't known about her condition for a long time. She has been experiencing a constant crisis for three months: she keeps having bleeding in her little eye and has a lot of headaches and eye pain," she added.
The family has been complaining for years that their daughter has undergone examinations, but has never received treatment. When she was four years old, the Cuban doctors who were treating her said they had to wait to see the evolution of the lymphangioma, because if it burst, the child could undergo a radical operation to remove her eye, as reported by Cubanet.
The girl is now 11 years old and continues to wait for that treatment that never arrives, and what is worse, her routine check-ups are now even failing her.
Doctors Julio César González Gómez and Odelaisys Hernández Echevarría from Pando Ferrer signed a report seven years ago stating that the ideal treatment for a lymphangioma like that of Rocío Bustamante was "incomplete, risky, and difficult," especially in Cuba, where by 2018 the conditions at that hospital were no longer suitable for operating on the girl. Seven years later, the Cuban healthcare system is even more impoverished. If there were no conditions in 2018, there are even fewer now.
At that moment, they prescribed eye drops to hydrate her eye, compresses, and follow-up checks every six months. Additionally, they explained that surgery would only be performed in case of an emergency.
The girl has sent a video to CiberCuba expressing her sorrow that her illness prevents her from living a normal life, like the other children her age. She complains that she cannot jump on inflatable structures or go off a trampoline. In Cuba, she can only wait, and she wants a treatment that will help alleviate the challenges posed by her lymphangioma.
It is not the first time a Cuban mother has reached out to this platform to express concern about the lack of medical opportunities for her children within the Island. On January 9, Yanaris Rodríguez received the worst possible news. The medical team caring for her daughter, Brianna Charlettte Blanco, who has a tumor that is initially believed to be benign at the base of her tongue, officially informed her that due to "shortages of medical supplies," the challenges faced in the country's healthcare institutions, and the fact that her daughter's condition is unique in Cuba, they can do nothing more for her.
This has also happened to Arlety Llerena, mother of Jorgito Reina, a Cuban boy with leukemia, who has been waiting for almost two years for a humanitarian visa to be able to travel to the United States, where he already has the approval from a hospital in Florida to take care of his case. The Cuban doctors also told her that there were no conditions to subject the boy to a bone marrow transplant, the only hope he has to continue living.
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