The Cuban activist Idelisa Diasniurka Salcedo Verdecia made a series of urgent appeals on Facebook this Thursday to obtain basic medical supplies at the Celia Sánchez Manduley Hospital in Manzanillo, where her cousin Addiel Verdecia is in critical condition after a serious accident.
In her publications, the activist reported that the emergency room of the hospital lacks the most basic materials to care for patients.
"SOS Manzanillo hospital, I urgently need medical supplies for my cousin who had an accident and there's nothing available. SOS SOS," she wrote in one of her posts under the hashtag #ManzanilloSOS.
The situation you describe is alarming even by the standards of the deteriorating Cuban healthcare system.
"In the room, there isn't even water," warned Salcedo Verdecia, who offered to cover from his own pocket what the hospital cannot provide: "Please, anyone who has medical supplies, I will buy them right now for Celia Manzanillo Hospital. Gloves, gauze, everything is urgent."
Salcedo Verdecia, who has been living in exile in the United States since January 2024 after being pressured by the regime to leave Cuba, has continued to denounce the situation on the island and manage humanitarian aid through her activism.
"I have a cousin right now in the emergency room from an accident, and there’s no way to clean it up inside the room," wrote the activist in one of her messages, starkly summarizing the reality of a healthcare system that the Cuban regime continues to present as a model to the world.
Her complaint about her cousin's situation reflects a widespread practice in Cuba: families turning to social media to obtain what hospitals lack, from gloves and gauze to antibiotics and suturing materials.
Additionally, the Celia Sánchez Manduley Hospital has years of complaints regarding institutional collapse.
In 2024, a critically ill patient was left unattended with flies on him in the same center.
A year later, in August, the hemodialysis service was repeatedly interrupted due to a shortage of sodium bicarbonate, dialyzers, and water, and the same shortage led to treatment suspensions again in April 2026.
The Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, acknowledged in February that the system was "on the brink of collapse", affecting millions of people with chronic illnesses.
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