A boy named Luis Michel, a resident of Cárdenas in the province of Matanzas, has been suffering from a fractured arm for eleven days without being able to complete his treatment because the hospital he goes to does not have orthopedic plaster available. This was reported this Thursday by communicator Christian Arbolaez on Facebook, where he also made a call for help to obtain the material.
According to Arbolaez's account, the minor suffered a fall on October 18 that resulted in fractures of both bones in one arm. His mother, Yusimí, immediately took him to the hospital in Cárdenas, where a doctor suspected the fracture but warned that there was no physician available to attend to him, nor any equipment to perform an X-ray.
Faced with that obstacle, Yusimí had no choice but to make her way on her own to the city of Matanzas, carrying the child in her arms, in order to get a medical examination and receive attention.
This Thursday, upon returning for an appointment to change the cast, the family encountered another refusal. “There was no cast at the hospital either,” Arbolaez wrote. “They were told they had to buy it on the street and bring it in so it could be applied.”
The communicator did not hide his outrage: "It's unbelievable that a child with a broken arm cannot receive such basic medical attention due to a lack of resources. First, there was no way to perform an X-ray in Cárdenas, and now they don't even have plaster to continue his treatment."
Arbolaez requested help for the minor: "Please, if anyone has orthopedic cast or knows where to obtain the materials that Luis Michel needs, contact us to help his mother, Yusimí."
Several internet users reported similar experiences. One user wrote that she had gone through something similar: "It's incredible how they say with complete nonchalance, first that there are no x-rays, that the equipment is broken, and then when you finally manage to get the x-ray, they tell you that there is no plaster." Another person summarized the situation bitterly: "There aren't any in the hospitals, but they do show up on the street."
It is not the first time that the deterioration of the Julio M. Aristegui Villamil Hospital in Cárdenas has been reported. In May 2026, a doctor anonymously stated that patients were required to bring their own basic supplies and that the facility did not perform CT scans, MRIs, or Doppler ultrasounds. Just a few weeks ago, the same hospital reported issues with the electricity supply, which could lead to patient transfers.
In January 2023, singer Ariadna Machado left a Havana hospital without a cast and only obtained the material after publicly denouncing her case. In August 2025, a boy from Holguín with a clavicle fracture received only a temporary cast while his surgery was postponed due to a lack of resources.
The Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, acknowledged before lawmakers in July 2025 that the availability of the basic drug list barely reached between 30% and 32%. By May 2026, according to UN data, more than 100,000 patients —including over 11,000 children— were waiting for surgeries postponed due to power outages and a lack of supplies.
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