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A young man residing in Miami experienced a true ordeal while traveling to Cuba to secure medical care for his grandmother, in an episode that starkly exposes the deterioration of the healthcare system on the Island and the extreme conditions in which patients and their families must survive.
According to a report by Telemundo 51, Luis Ernesto -who studied nuclear medicine in Cuba- received a call that changed everything, from his mother informing him that his grandmother needed surgery. He immediately took a flight, bringing essential medical supplies with him that he knew he wouldn't find in his country.
Upon arriving at the Arnaldo Milián Castro Clinical Surgical Hospital in Santa Clara, where he completed his professional internship 11 years ago, he confirmed that the situation was even more alarming than he had thought: an unhealthy environment, with conditions that posed an immediate risk to patients.
"There was nothing. The urine, because it had a drain, was everywhere, deteriorated, rusted," he explained.
Given that situation, and fearing that his grandmother would contract a deadly infection, he made extreme decisions. With his own money, he paid 100 dollars to inmates to clean the waiting area, as he explained, the maintenance of the institution even falls to prisoners.
But the most critical moments came with power outages, which directly threaten the lives of the sick. Luis Ernesto witnessed the deaths of several patients during power cuts, including a 21-year-old young man who died from an infection after several hours without electricity.
In that environment, he decided to get directly involved. He dressed as a nurse and began working alongside the medical staff, doing everything he could to maintain his grandmother's care in a completely overwhelmed system.
He also tried to provide some emotional relief: he bought food, distributed yogurt to patients, and sweets to hospitalized children, seeking to offer a human touch amid the crisis.
Finally, grandmother's operation was a success. Due to the lack of transportation within the hospital system, he carried her in his arms to transfer her and managed to take her to another center.
Back in Miami, she received the news she had been waiting for: the elderly woman was discharged from the hospital.
Luis Ernesto is aware that by publicly denouncing his experiences, the Castro regime may ban him from entering the country. Nonetheless, he chose to confront the possible consequences.
Its story reflects not just an individual case, but a much broader reality: a deeply deteriorated healthcare system, lacking medications, with inadequate hygienic conditions, crumbling infrastructure, and overwhelmed staff.
In that context, survival often depends more on the efforts of families than on a state that should ensure their protection.
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