The press of Turkey highlighted this Saturday the work carried out by the Cuban medical brigade Henry Reeve, deployed in the province of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of two recent earthquakes that have left a balance of more than 44,200 people dead in the region.
“Being thousands of kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquakes was not an obstacle at all to provide a voluntary medical service to the victims of the natural disaster,” said the Cuban doctors Anadolu Agency, a source for a report from the Prensa Latina (PL) agency.
Kübalı sağlık ordusu deprem bölgesinde! ‘Birşey yapmadan duramazdık’
The Cuban health army is in the earthquake zone! We could not stand by and do nothing’. #CubaForLifehttps://t.co/MZ9Sqqj2Jw through @milliyet pic.twitter.com/qVExaWNHfq
— Embacuba_Turquia (@Embacuba_Turqui) February 23, 2023
The team of 32 doctors arrived in Kahramanmaras province on February 12, six days after the two devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey. Since then they have offered their collaboration, highlighted the Turkish media.
According to PL, Dr. Juan Carlos Dupuy Nuñez, in charge of the brigade, told Anadolu that this group has 28 doctors and nurses from different specialties who work in three locations in that town.
“We started caring for patients in our intensive care unit on the first day of our arrival. All those people were victims of the earthquakes directly or indirectly,” said the doctor.
Cuba sends medical brigade to Turkey to assist earthquake victims
The team treated those affected, mostly with orthopedic complications, and children with respiratory problems, Nuñez told Anadolu.
“We cared for people over 100 years old with diabetes, whose state of health worsened after the telluric movements. We managed to stabilize them and save their lives,” she said.
In addition, Cuban and Turkish orthopedics jointly operated and cared for trauma patients.
The pensa agency highlights that the Cuban medical team treated more than 2,500 people, “and that count continues.”
The first telluric movements of great intensity occurred on February 6 in an area shared by Turkey and Syria. In addition to the thousands of victims, it left extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure.
The highest Cuban authorities, including President Miguel Díaz-Canel, offered condolences and solidarity on behalf of the Cuban people with the Turkish Government, the victims and their families, and decided to send a medical brigade prepared to provide services in disaster conditions.
Since the initial earthquake, the area has suffered others and aftershocks of greater or lesser intensity. According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, the new earthquake affected Turkey’s Anatolian province of Nigde. Its epicenter had a depth of 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) and struck the Bor district of Niğde province, just 200 miles from the initial quake.
