MIAMI, United States. — A 10-month-old baby died this Thursday in a hospital in the municipality of Alquízar, province of Artemisa, after waiting more than five hours for an ambulance.
The complaint was made in social networks by Dr. Lucio Enríquez Nodarse, a Cuban doctor residing in Spain, who had access to information about the case through unidentified sources.
The doctor’s report indicates that the little girl, who lives with her parents in the town of Dagame, arrived at the Ciro Redondo Teaching Hospital with a fever in the morning and difficulty breathing.
According to Enríquez Nodarse, the baby, who had a history of good health, was treated in an emergency, “requiring transfer to the pediatric hospital.” However, —added the doctor— since there was no ambulance available, the little girl died in the emergency room after four or five hours of waiting for the transfer.
He is also a member of Free Cuban Medical Guild posted a video showing images of the girl having difficulty breathing.
“It has been necessary to leave the girl’s face so that it can be seen and understood, however painful it may be, what is explained from a medical point of view. I am so sorry to have to show you this image, but it is the harsh reality that you are going to have to wake up to one day. This is until you, the people of Cuba, want it. It is sad to see this video of a dying child where no professional is taking any action,” Enríquez Nodarse wrote.
The doctor assured that, based on the images and the information received, the baby was in “a state of agony due to respiratory distress and with symptoms of rattling, paradoxical breathing, poor ventilatory mechanics, laryngeal stridor, obtundation, possibly due to lack of of oxygen, with little force to breathe due to exhaustion, without receiving at least oxygen, without any type of monitoring.
“More invasive actions would be needed, such as proceeding with an urgent intubation to save his life and subsequent transfer to intensive care,” explained the doctor.
At the moment, neither the authorities of the province of Artemisa nor the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) have ruled on the case.
