A mother from Villa Clara has been at the José Luis Miranda University Pediatric Hospital in Santa Clara for nearly two years, where she stays with her four-year-old son, a boy who was admitted walking and talking for surgery and came out of the operating room with irreversible brain damage after experiencing two cardiorespiratory arrests.
Claudia Acosta Duanes reported that there was medical negligence at the hospital, in a message sent to the editorial team of CiberCuba and in posts on social media.
He reported that his son Milán was admitted to the hospital on November 29, 2024, with episodes of apnea, diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe laryngomalacia. Two weeks later, on December 13, he went into the operating room for a tracheostomy in seemingly good condition.
"On December 13, he entered the room connected to a CPAP with a saturation of 98, talking, crying, and importantly, with an ultrasound done 15 minutes prior in which the cardiologist said he was fit for surgery," Acosta wrote.
What happened in the operating room changed both of their lives forever. The child suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest lasting 40 minutes and then another lasting 27 minutes, resulting in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, a severe brain injury caused by prolonged oxygen deprivation.
The doctors attributed the incident to moving the child from one stretcher to another. Acosta rejects this outright: "How is it possible that my son was fine, and they are telling me that by changing him from one stretcher to another he suffered respiratory arrest? That's a lie."
"After my son entered that operating room, they ruined his life," he stated.
Since then, Milán has been confined to the hospital. He requires a tracheostomy, a gastrostomy tube, special cannulas, anti-decubitus creams, diapers, and continuous electricity. His mother has not left his side for a single day. The child's father does not participate in his care.
To be able to bring Milán home, Acosta needed to ensure continuous electricity and air conditioning. After reaching out on social media, he received donations of a generator and other supplies.
However, when the state visited his home in Sitiecito, it determined that it did not meet the conditions for the child and approved an amount to buy a new house. The problem is that this sum is not enough.
"The government approved an amount for the purchase of the house, but that amount is not enough to buy a home that is at least decent for the child to live in," the mother reported.
Additionally, the residence identified by the authorities is in Sitiecito, 48 kilometers from the Provincial Hospital, a distance that Acosta considers a deadly risk: the child could suffer seizures or a blockage in the tracheostomy tube at any moment, and five minutes without oxygen to the brain, given his condition, could be fatal.
«For these poor innocents, there is no home, no diapers, no food, nothing, but for others, there is», she wrote. «My soul can no longer bear it. I just want to be home with my son, since they took away my joy of having a normal child», she confessed.
While waiting for a solution that has not materialized for over a month, mother and son survive on what the hospital offers: peas and squash for her; mashed banana, malanga, and picadillo for the child. Acosta supplements the boy's diet on her own. "My son is healthy today because I don't give him the food from this hospital; otherwise, he would be as he was, malnourished," she revealed.
The case is not the first of its kind at this same center. In 2025, it was reported that a 10-year-old boy had spent his entire life admitted to the "José Luis Miranda" due to a degenerative neuromuscular disease, without the State facilitating his transfer home.
More recently, another mother reported that her baby has been living in the hospital since birth due to alleged negligence during delivery, with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
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