Pre-university students Javier Enrique Pino Burgos and Manuel Enrique Cancio Amador have been hospitalized since January 6, after a mural collapsed in Sancti Spíritus and fell on top of them. Both of them, like another young man who was also injured, were surprised by the incident while they were waiting for the Freedom Caravan to pass, which recreates Fidel Castro’s journey to Havana in 1959.
Cancio Amador, who suffered “multiple vertebral and lumbar fractures”, is in “serious condition”, reported the doctor Darelsy Balsaín Mencía, director of the José Martí Pérez Provincial Teaching Pediatric Hospital, to the official newspaper Escambray.
Because Cancio Amador required specialized care due to the polytraumatology he presented, he was taken and admitted to the José Luis Miranda Provincial Teaching Pediatric Hospital in Santa Clara. Balsaín explained that the patient underwent a “nuclear magnetic resonance of the lumbosacral spine” and “traumatic herniated discs” were detected.
Due to the “fracture of the L-3 and L-5 vertebrae” presented by the student, Dr. Balsaín mentioned that it will be in the coming weeks when the Neurosurgery service of the Villa Clara Pediatric Hospital will re-evaluate the patient for possible surgical intervention.
Pino Burgos, the other injured party, had an exposed fracture of his left tibia. His extremity was immobilized with a plaster cast and “he remains admitted to the Pediatric Hospital from Sancti Spiritus, currently reported for care,” the doctor stressed.
Balsaín explained that the patient underwent a “nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbosacral spine” and “traumatic herniated discs” were detected.
Lázaro Emmanuel Cabrera Pérez, the third injured party, had a concussion, but his evolution was favorable and last Saturday he was discharged.
The provincial director of Education in Sancti Spíritus, Andrei Armas Bravo, mentioned that the injured are tenth grade students of the Honorato del Castillo Urban Pre-University. According to his account, “a group leaned against a mural by plastic artist Alexander Hernández Chang embedded in the wall, collapsing the elements of concrete, bricks and other heavy materials.”
The manager’s argument was questioned by the user identified as Annia, who said that surely the wall was “glued with saliva because they took the cement” and lamented the impunity towards the authorities: “Nothing is wrong with those responsible. It’s incredible.”
At the end of September last year, the engineer Miguel Diaz Sistachs died in an accident while trying to place a pole in the José Martí Civic Square in Marianao (Havana) for the celebrations for the 61st anniversary of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).
That same month, the Guantánamo Provincial Directorate of Education confirmed the girl’s death. Magalis Vazquez Gomez, a second grade student at the Amador Martínez Wilson elementary school, in the municipality of El Salvador. The Education directors argued that the minor was “hit by a fence” during “recess hours.”
In January 2020, the girls María Karla Fuentes, Lisnavy Valdés Rodríguez and Rocío García Nápolesabout 11 years old, who studied primary school at the Quintín Banderas center, died after a balcony collapsed in Old Havana, between Vives and Revillagigedo streets, in the Jesús María neighborhood.
Neighbors of the place commented that the back of the building had begun to be demolished, but the area was not marked as it would have been necessary to avoid situations like this.
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