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Isaura Medero, a Cuban mother residing in La Palma, municipality of Pinar del Río, has been denouncing the institutional neglect she faces while caring for her daughter Karla Isabella, a four-year-old girl diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia type B.
In a video shared on Facebook, Medero shows the conditions under which she is forced to cook: without gas, without a terrace, with all the smoke from the fire accumulating inside the house while it rains outside.
"Look, all the smoke inside the house, it's raining. I don't have a terrace, I can't take them outside," says the mother in the video, pointing out the risk this poses for a girl with a weakened immune system due to her illness.
In her Facebook post, Medero addresses the complaint to officials identified as Eumelin González Sánchez, Pablo Yuriandy Torres Leal, and the Communicator of the Palma Administration Council, whom she holds responsible for not responding to her requests.
"Two years since my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, two years trying to finish the house, two years requesting liquefied gas, and two years publishing, almost for the sake of it," she wrote.
The mother describes an exhausting cycle of meetings with no results: "So many meetings and so much effort wasted; what is truly important becomes invisible in their eyes, I believe."
Their demand is clear: "I need an answer, not a solution. And I want it before it's too late."
El caso se enmarca en una structural crisis of liquefied gas in Cuba que se agudizó desde finales de 2024 y se extendió a lo largo de 2025 y 2026, obligando a millones de familias a cocinar con leña, carbón o queroseno.
In Isla de la Juventud, the authorities restricted the sale of liquefied gas and prioritized it exclusively for bedridden individuals and patients undergoing hemodialysis, leaving out families with severely ill children.
The gas shortage is also leading to increased electricity consumption for cooking, amid a widespread energy crisis affecting the entire island.
The case of Karla Isabella is not the only documented one. Other Cuban mothers with children suffering from leukemia have publicly denounced the lack of oncological medications, the absence of institutional response, and the need to seek treatment abroad through humanitarian visas.
Since 2021, similar cases have been documented, such as those of Wendy Bernal, Janet Oliva for her daughter Valentina Méndez Oliva, and Niuvis Figueredo for her daughter Meral Vaillan Figueredo, all sharing the same common denominator: Cuban families abandoned by the State while facing serious illnesses.
On her Facebook profile, Isaura Medero has shared more details about the case of Karla Isabella, including the history of efforts made to contact local authorities without receiving a concrete response.
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