Reinaldo Suárez Piloto, a volunteer correspondent for the independent platform Cárdenas Oficial, broke his anonymity to publicly denounce the death of his father in the Cárdenas Territorial Hospital, in the province of Matanzas, and the conditions of neglect that his family experienced during the hospitalization.
The correspondent, who usually works without revealing his identity for security reasons, decided to sign this time with his full name. "My father did not deserve to die. And even less did he deserve to leave in the conditions of abandonment, poverty, neglect, and inadequate care that we had to face," he wrote.
"There are not enough medications, the most basic conditions are lacking, the bathrooms are in a truly disgusting state, there is no water, and families often find themselves not knowing what to do, whom to turn to, or how to obtain what is necessary to care for their sick."
The whistleblower acknowledged the efforts of the healthcare professionals present but made it clear that this does not absolve the authorities of their responsibility. "There are doctors and nurses who want to help, but they work within a system that leaves them without resources, without proper conditions, and without sufficient answers," he stated.
“The political and administrative responsibility for this situation also falls on the local authorities of Cárdenas, who cannot ignore the conditions in which the main hospital of our municipality is found,” he wrote, and he was even more direct: “The Hospital of Cárdenas is a disgrace for our municipality.”
"I am poor. My family is also poor. We have no other place to turn to when we need medical care. We lack the resources to seek alternatives or the means to escape a reality that particularly impacts those who have the least," they expressed.
The Cárdenas Hospital has accumulated a series of documented allegations throughout 2026. In May, an anonymous doctor from the very center alerted that patients had to bring their own syringes, probes, and even blood to receive care, and that the hospital was unable to perform tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or multiple basic tests.
That same month, a surgeon warned that the authorities intended to move the only functional anesthesia machine from the center, which would have forced urgent surgical cases to be referred to the Faustino Pérez Hospital in Matanzas, 45 kilometers away. In October, an electrical fault forced the transfer of intensive care patients, and days later it was reported that there was no plaster for a child with an arm fracture.
Suárez Piloto concluded his statement with a phrase that encapsulates both his pain and his determination: "Because no Cuban should feel condemned to abandonment for being poor."
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