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Vanessa de la Caridad Verdecía Labrada, a three-year-old girl from Holguín, passed away on Wednesday without being able to receive the bone marrow transplant she needed to survive high-risk leukemia.
The news was shared on Facebook by Verónica Dantés De Cuba and Orleydis Rodríguez, who had followed and supported the fundraising campaign for the little girl.
"Holguín is in mourning... I saw this case on social media and saw so many people helping her, and I was very happy... but it hit me deeply when I found out that Vanessa is gone," they wrote.
The girl had been diagnosed with high-risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia type M4/M5, an illness that her father, Adam Verdecia, described plainly: "There is no treatment other than a bone marrow transplant."
The medical reports from the Holguín University Pediatric Hospital confirmed that Vanessa had suffered a severe relapse. According to the publications, she exhibited "more than 60% infiltration of myeloid blasts in bone marrow, severe anemia, critically low platelets, recurrent infections, and a very delicate prognosis."
A hospital in Italy had accepted the case to perform the transplant, a procedure that Cuba does not practice on pediatric patients and for which the country does not appear in any international donor registry.
The cost of treatment abroad ranged between 65,000 and 160,000 euros, an amount that was completely unattainable for the family.
The alternative was to take her to Miami, where a hospital was already waiting. "Vanessa was in very delicate condition. Her health did not allow her to travel on a regular flight; the family was prepared to transfer her by air ambulance directly to Miami," those who followed the case explained.
"In Cuba, there are practically no more medical options to save her," the publications noted, summarizing the situation faced by dozens of Cuban families with children suffering from cancer who cannot access treatments that the island's healthcare system is unable to provide.
Other voices on social media also joined in mourning. "May God take you in His embrace, princess," wrote activist Yan Cuba Nayara, the driving force behind the humanitarian project "Light of the Heart."
"Rest in peace, Vanessa," published the activist Noly Blak, known for organizing collections and aid campaigns for people in extreme poverty or facing health issues in Holguín.
This case starkly highlights the limitations of the Cuban healthcare system.
Cuba does not perform pediatric bone marrow transplants and is not listed in any international donor registry, forcing families to seek treatment abroad at costs that can range from 65,000 to 160,000 euros.
The healthcare collapse is documented: the Ministry of Public Health acknowledged in July 2025 that only 30% of the basic medicine supply is covered, and infant mortality rose to 8.2 deaths per every 1,000 live births, compared to 3.9 in 2018, an increase of nearly 110% in seven years.
Vanessa's story is not unique. Since 2022, numerous Cuban families have had to turn to humanitarian visas or international fundraising campaigns to access transplants or other treatments that the Cuban state is unable to provide.
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