An elderly woman in apparent critical condition was transported to the emergency room of the Amalia Simoni Hospital in Camagüey, sitting in a regular chair, dragged by two people, because the facility did not have a wheelchair available.
The scene, captured in a video posted on Facebook by independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada, is a new indictment of the collapse of the Cuban healthcare system.
The images show an elderly woman, dressed in a house robe and slippers, being supported by at least two people who, judging by their clothing, do not appear to be hospital staff, presumably family members.
The video garnered over 41,000 views, reflecting the impact it had on Cubans both on the Island and abroad.
Amalia Simoni —the main clinical and surgical hospital in the province— has a history of complaints that has worsened in recent years: flooding and power outages, a fire in the power plant that forced theevacuation of critically ill patients in September 2025, the collapse of ceilings in operating rooms that suspended surgeries in November of that year, and a fire in the generator that necessitated the evacuation of newborns to the Pediatric Hospital in July 2026.
The most serious incident occurred on August 20th, when Tan Estrada himself reported the abandonment of patients in room A of the center: elderly individuals, people with disabilities, and psychiatric patients who were almost naked, malnourished, and covered in feces, without receiving hygiene or food. "No one bathes them. No one cleans them. No one feeds them. They are malnourished, covered in flies, just lying there," the journalist stated. One of those patients died just 24 hours later after the report became public.
The shortage of wheelchairs is widespread throughout the national healthcare system. In March, the Minister of Industries, Eloy Álvarez Martínez, admitted that the units distributed by the State“are not sufficient”: in 2025 only 3,115 were distributed across the country, and for 2026 only 2,000 were planned. Domestic production was halted for two years before resuming in July 2025.
Similar cases have been reported in other Cuban hospitals. Last November, a video showed a patient being transported in a chair due to a lack of stretchers at the Lenin Hospital in Holguín; in April of this year, another patient was taken down the stairs in a wheelchair at the General Hospital of Cárdenas because the elevator had been out of service for some time.
The Minister of Public Health himself, José Ángel Portal Miranda, declared in February that the Cuban healthcare system was "on the brink of collapse", citing a lack of fuel for ambulances and power outages affecting critical equipment such as respirators and incubators.
Filed under: