HAVANA, July 21 — Every power outage in Cuban hospitals “translates into risks to the lives of our patients and deep exhaustion for our health professionals.”
Cuba’s Deputy Health Minister Julio Guerra Izquierdo made the remarks during a handover ceremony held Monday for donated solar panels and medical supplies at the Juan Manuel Marquez Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Havana, the capital of Cuba.
Cuba’s healthcare services are being enormously impacted by a de facto U.S. energy blockade through an oil siege since early this year, according to the deputy health minister.
“The lack of stable energy directly affects the preservation of medicines, the use of high-tech equipment, the performance of surgeries and even basic care in emergency rooms,” Guerra Izquierdo noted.
He denounced the U.S. blockade as “genocidal” to Cuban patients. “It has severely limited our ability to access fuel, technology and essential resources needed for the functioning of our hospital institutions.”
The government official further highlighted a surgical waiting list of more than 100,000 patients, difficulties in ensuring supplies for maternal and child care, a rise in the infant mortality rate, lower survival rates among children diagnosed with cancers, and shortages of medicines.
“The donation we receive today has incalculable value,” Guerra Izquierdo noted. The supplies mean clean and stable energy for the Juan Manuel Marquez pediatric hospital, he added.
The donation, arriving on Sunday at the port of Havana, was shipped by the sailboat Astral, operated by the Spanish non-governmental organization Open Arms, as part of the international solidarity project Rumbo a Cuba, promoted by activists and politicians in Spain to channel humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean island country.
The pediatric hospital’s intensive care unit, in particular, benefits from the donation.
“The solar panels we have received are a guarantee that when the power grid fails — and we know it will fail — our ventilators, infusion pumps and monitors will stay on,” said the unit’s head, Alicia Cedeno.
She said she already saw doctors and nurses “perform real acts of magic” with the supplies available.
The humanitarian aid received has also brought relief to Dayana Blanco, the mother of a baby being treated at the hospital.
Repeated problems with electricity and medical supplies have punctuated their months-long stay at the hospital, she said.
Despite difficulties and frustrations, the medical staff had sought alternative medicines or different treatments for her son, leaving no stone unturned, she said.
“They never leave him unprotected,” the mother said. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
