The Cuban priest Olbier Hernández Carbonell confirmed this Thursday news that hundreds of people both inside and outside the Island had been eagerly awaiting.
"The Lord, who is good and merciful, has heard our prayers. Brianna, the Cuban girl who was suffering from cancer, has undergone surgery and everything is going well," announced on Facebook.
"Continue praying for her and her swift recovery," she expressed in her post, accompanied by messages of gratitude and hope.
For her part, activist Amalia Barrera, who has been helping the family in Valencia, shared photos of the girl just out of surgery.
"She is intubated, stable, and in the process of recovery," he detailed.
The prayer of Father Hernández is added to the long chain of solidarity that allowed Brianna Charlette Blanco, 10 years old, to reach Spain to undergo a surgery that was impossible to perform in Cuba.
The young girl suffered from a complex tumor—a thyroglossal cyst with a fistulous tract—that had severely affected her tongue and throat since she was three years old.
After three failed surgeries on the Island, the tumor continued to grow, compromising vital functions such as breathing, swallowing, and speaking.
The girl began to show signs of malnutrition and episodes of choking, while her voice deteriorated due to the strain on her vocal cords.
In January, the Cuban doctors confirmed to her mother what she had already feared: the country lacked the resources and technology necessary to operate with the precision her case required.
They delivered the written diagnosis, with a damning phrase: "surgical procedure cannot proceed."
That document ultimately became the symbol of a boundary and the starting point of a battle that would traverse media, borders, and bureaucracies.
Eight months of struggle, closed doors, and transnational solidarity
The activist Saily González launched a fundraising campaign in the United States. More than $6,900 was raised in just a few months, but the total estimated cost for the surgery was $32,000.
Nevertheless, solidarity did not falter. Each donation, every message, every person who shared the story kept alive the possibility of saving Brianna.
Later, after hospital refusals, difficult procedures, and a long failed attempt to obtain a humanitarian visa for the United States, the process finally concluded with an approval for travel to Spain.
On November 13, mother and daughter took off from Havana on a flight that activist Lara Crofs described as "the flight of hope." On the 14th, they arrived in Madrid, and from there, they traveled to Valencia, where the medical process began.
Last week, Crofs confirmed that Brianna has been scheduled to undergo surgery by the renowned surgeon Pedro Cavadas at the Vithas Valencia 9 de Octubre Hospital.
The intervention took place this Thursday, November 27, at 7:30 am, as announced.
A recovery that keeps hope alive
Although medical details regarding the next steps or estimated recovery time have not yet been disclosed, the message from priest Hernández Carbonell confirms that the surgery was performed and that the procedure has had an initial positive outcome.
The priest requested to continue with the prayers, a gesture that reflects the shared sentiment of hundreds of people who supported this process in various ways.
From anonymous donors abroad, to activists and Cuban citizens who shared her story, and doctors willing to review the case, Brianna's life today rests on a human network that chose not to give up.
Her struggle is also the struggle of a mother who refused to accept the ending that was offered to her and turned helplessness into action.
Now, with the first battle behind her, the recovery of the little one becomes the next goal for everyone who has followed her story.
Brianna, the girl who feared for years that she would run out of breath, now breathes with new opportunities ahead. And thousands of people, both in Cuba and abroad, breathe along with her.
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