The hero of Sandino: Cuban doctor saves fisherman attacked by a shark at sea

The young Cuban doctor Yaismel Corrada Valdés, 28 years old, from the municipality of Sandino, became a hero after jumping into the sea to save the life of a fisherman who had been attacked by a shark in waters near La Coloma.

According to a report this Tuesday from the newspaper Guerrillero, the incident occurred on a sunny morning when Corrada, a First Degree specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine and a graduate in Emergency and Medical Urgencies, was at the Cadeca de Cortés handling personal matters.

At that moment, he received an urgent alert from the Border Guard Unit: a fisherman had been attacked by a shark offshore and they needed immediate medical assistance.

“I decided to go help that person because I believed that I, as a doctor, could attend to the patient. I took what was necessary from the Medical Post and left,” Corrada recounted.

The young man embarked on a boat heading out to sea, without protocols or guarantees, driven solely by his vocation and sense of duty, the newspaper highlighted.

The injured person was Yordán Rivera, fisherman from Galafre Nuevo, who had sustained serious injuries to one hand and cuts on his chest.

"We continued searching until we arrived at the exact location, closer to La Coloma than to Cortés. We lifted him onto the boat, checked his vital signs, bandaged the wounds, and inserted an IV to hydrate him with saline solution.", the doctor explained.

Thanks to their quick intervention, the fisherman arrived alive at the port of La Coloma, where he was met by a team from the SIUM and urgently transferred to the hospital Abel Santamaría in Pinar del Río, where he underwent surgery.

He is currently in recovery.

It is a unique experience that has made me feel uplifted because I had the opportunity to save a life that needed it so much. If I had to do it again, I would do it again, stated Yaismel Corrada.

“It was an immediate response in which I was able to discover what I would be capable of to save a life, prioritizing my knowledge and acquired skills,” added the young doctor.