In the Holguín Regional Center for Neonatal Surgery, nurses must rely on their own hands to keep newborns breathing when power outages stop the mechanical ventilators.
While they try to save them, they rely on emergency electrical systems that do not always respond in time, a situation that exposes the deterioration of hospital conditions that the Cuban authorities have failed to resolve.
The alarming reality was described in the report "Salvar a oscuras", published on Saturday by the official newspaper Juventud Rebelde, which documented the challenges faced by the staff at the Octavio de la Concepción and de la Pedraja Pediatric Hospital in Holguín in caring for babies who depend on electrical equipment to survive.
The story presents a scene that illustrates the seriousness of the issue: Nurses Diana Rodríguez and Liliannis Carballo are monitoring the newborns in their incubators when, suddenly, the electricity goes out.
In the midst of the darkness, one of them turns on a rechargeable lamp while the other searches for a manual resuscitator, known as Ambu, to help little Leonardo breathe, whose mechanical ventilator has just stopped.
The device operates through a bag that the healthcare personnel compress with their hands to introduce air into the patient's lungs. It is an emergency resource that allows ventilation to be maintained while efforts are made to restore the functionality of the electrical equipment.
Nurses do not know how long they will have to continue performing those maneuvers. The supply may return in seconds, but it can also take several minutes or longer if the backup systems fail.
The scene reflects the bravery and commitment of healthcare personnel, but it is also heartbreaking due to the precarious conditions in which newborns receive medical care in Cuba.
In a service where some patients are premature or have serious medical conditions, each interruption adds risks that should not depend on how quickly a worker can start up a power plant.
Diana Rodríguez, 28 years old, has been working at the center for eight years and recalls with distress her first experience during a blackout while attending to a critical patient.
"I had just graduated," she told the official newspaper.
«I was working with another nurse, who had stepped out of the cubicle for a moment. At that moment, the power went out. I remember we had some chairs in the middle, and I don't know how I jumped over one of them.»
The nurse recounted that the episode caused her to tremble and break out in a cold sweat, a understandable reaction considering the responsibility of caring for a baby who relies on a mechanical ventilator.
"There is no class at the university that prepares you for these situations. It’s experience that teaches you. I will never forget that moment. It’s etched in my memory forever," he confessed.
What should be an exceptional situation has become a recurrent risk for workers who need to focus on their patients, not on anticipating the next power outage.
Liliannis Carballo, 32 years old, a specialist in Neonatology, also recalled a particularly complicated transfer that necessitated moving a patient to another area of the hospital.
There was an occasion when the power went out for more than an hour and we had to move one of the patients to another part of the hospital, where there was electricity," he explained.
The professional described how, in an emergency of that kind, the medical team must set aside some of the usual precautions of neonatal care to focus on keeping the patient alive.
"Saving his life becomes the focal point of everything, without any alternative procedures," he stated.
His words encapsulate the dramatic reality of healthcare in Cuba, where the lack of resources and the deterioration of facilities force healthcare personnel to work under conditions that seem more suited to a field hospital in wartime than a health center in the 21st century.
The lack of electricity does not only affect mechanical ventilators. Incubators require power to maintain an appropriate temperature, which is especially important for premature babies who are still unable to effectively regulate their body heat.
It can also complicate other delicate procedures, such as the administration of fluids and medications through intravenous catheters.
The report describes that when a prolonged interruption causes issues with these accesses, specialists may be forced to repeat difficult procedures on newborns who are already in critical condition.
But one of the most concerning aspects of the investigation is the condition of the electrical systems that should protect the hospital from power outages.
The facility receives power through two channels and is equipped with backup systems. One of them is designed to start supplying electricity automatically about 30 seconds after an interruption.
However, the report itself acknowledges that the age and technical deterioration of these devices cause failures in their operation.
When the automatic system fails to respond, the restoration of service relies on an operator detecting the issue, reaching the location, and performing the necessary maneuvers.
That worker is Néstor Vélez Sinta, a technician with four decades of experience in the electrical sector who has been operating the hospital's generators since 2023.
Between the two power stations he serves, there are 175 steps, a journey he sometimes has to make while running in an effort to restore electricity, moments that seem to stretch and turn seconds into hours.
When the national electrical system fails or the hospital's supply inputs are interrupted simultaneously, Néstor may need to move back and forth between both facilities multiple times.
During that time of indescribable anguish, the healthcare staff continues to manually attend to patients who need ventilation.
The precarious situation reached the point where the technician had to craft a homemade alarm using parts salvaged from a radio to quickly become aware of power outages.
The device allows you to detect interruptions and respond more quickly, but it does not repair damaged equipment nor guarantee that the supply will return immediately.
The creativity of the worker deserves recognition for its usefulness in an emergency. However, it also highlights the lack of adequate technical solutions in an institution where essential equipment for patient survival operates.
The fact that a pediatric hospital partially relies on an improvised alarm to detect failures in its electrical system raises questions about the maintenance of its facilities, the renewal of equipment, and the resources allocated for essential services.
Cuban authorities are responsible for managing the public health system, establishing budget priorities, maintaining hospital facilities, and organizing available resources to ensure essential services.
Difficulties in importing fuel or components may exacerbate the problem, but they do not eliminate the need to examine the age of the equipment, the maintenance performed, and the investment decisions made over the years.
The fragility of hospital electrical systems is not an isolated issue in Holguín.
In August 2025, the authorities themselves acknowledged the collapse of emergency power plants in hospitals in Santiago de Cuba, due to the prolonged use of equipment that was not designed to operate continuously.
That recognition highlighted that even healthcare facilities deemed a priority could lose their capacity to respond during power outages.
In September of the same year, the Ministry of Public Health admitted that a general blackout forced the cancellation of scheduled surgeries and other medical procedures, while hospitals were trying to concentrate their resources on emergencies.
Deputy Minister Carilda Peña García then explained that contingency protocols had been activated, including controls over the generators, oxygen tanks, and water supply systems.
One day later, new interruptions were reported in hospitals during the national blackout, including failures of backup equipment that hindered patient care.
In May, the Electric Company of Holguín acknowledged that it was leaving entire municipalities without electricity in order to prioritize certain circuits, including those supplying hospitals, government facilities, and Communist Party offices.
However, the report on the Regional Center for Neonatal Surgery shows that having priority in electrical distribution does not, by itself, guarantee uninterrupted care when emergency systems also fail.
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