Havana/The health status of the Spaniard Pedro Daniel Bernad, visiting Cuba, is critical. The tourist, a native of Épila, a small town in Zaragoza, arrived on the island on October 3 to spend what he thought would be a dream vacation, but a week later, he had to be admitted to the Arnaldo Milián Castro hospital in Santa Clara due to an intestinal obstruction.
His clinical picture, relatives have told various Spanish media. As if that were not enough, pneumonia complicated his recovery and he remains in the Intensive Care Unit of the Santa Clara hospital.
Bernad’s sister and his brother-in-law, Daniel Mosteo, moved to the island to be close to him, and the panorama they have found in Cuba is one of terror. “It is a country with very little health infrastructure,” summarizes the family member to the Spanish newspaper. The reason.
“When you see the material and hygienic conditions of the hospital, your heart skips a beat,” says Mosteo to the same medium. The shortage of drugs is so pressing that relatives have had to obtain the antibiotic for Bernad through the Spanish consulate, but only the dose is covered for this Tuesday of the “seven days in which it is necessary to administer it.”
/ Daniel Mosteo/Aragón News
Given the deplorable situation in the hospital, Mosteo and his wife are trying to repatriate the 51-year-old man, however the efforts with the insurance company he hired for the trip and the Spanish consulate were unsuccessful.
The insurer argued that repatriation on a “medical plane,” which costs 150,000 euros ($174,201), “is limited to some countries.” On the other hand, as Mosteo explained to The reasonthe Spanish embassy told them that the official return “is only contemplated in situations of collective emergency.”
Bernad’s brother-in-law expressed his frustration with the system. “I don’t understand why it is not complementary for situations of extreme seriousness. Why do we pay taxes, if when you need it most it does not come back to you. It is a very serious situation, it is not a migraine that you get abroad, and you do not receive support from your Government,” he stressed.
The efforts to repatriate Bernad have been joined by Epila City Council. In a brief statement, the entity points out that they are carrying out “all possible steps to help the situation improve and their return is achieved as soon as possible.”
The relatives fear that it may be too late, but they continue to move “heaven and earth” to get the Spaniard to return to Zaragoza, published The Herald of Aragon.
Bernad’s case is not isolated. Last April, Canadians Christian Maurais and Caroline Tétrault They lived a similar experience when she underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis at the same Santa Clara hospital.
“There was no light, no minimum conditions. It seemed like a horror movie, but the doctors worked miracles with what they had,” Maurais told the Quebec press.
His testimony, like Bernad’s, coincides with the lack of antibiotics, adequate food and basic resources. They even had to buy medicine and food on the black market, facing the risk of illegal currency exchange.
In March, another incident shook the international community when the Syrian-Canadian citizen Faraj Allah Jarjour He died during his vacation in Cuba and his family received back the wrong body. The Cuban Government apologized, but the case remains unresolved.
In the midst of the health crisis that visitors have experienced, this Monday the Ministry of Tourism highlighted that the World Travel Awards have awarded Cuba for the fifth consecutive time the award for Best Cultural Destination in the Caribbean.
The official media Forward praised the award that includes hotels-tourist accommodations, attractions and airlines-transportation. “They are considered the Oscars of the tourism industry,” he reaffirmed, without referring to the disastrous tourism figures or the increasingly frequent and harsh complaints, of international visitors.
