“I’m in a race against time,” the minor’s mother told ‘CubaNet’.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA. – Nael Caleb Ramírez Terazon, a four-year-old boy residing in the Zamorana neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba, has been accepted by a specialized hospital in Türkiye to treat a brain stem tumor, after more than a year of treatments without favorable results in Cuba.
The minor was diagnosed 15 months ago and since then he has received the care available in Santiago de Cuba, but his evolution has been negative: he can no longer walk, his language is severely affected and he presents nystagmus (involuntary eye movements associated with the growth of the tumor). At the end of November, he was admitted to the Sur Children’s Hospital (La Colonia) for severe headaches, although he was later discharged.
Given the lack of surgical options in Cuba for tumors in that area of the brain, his mother, Madeline Terazon Godina, managed to contact a medical center in Türkiye. After reviewing the clinical documentation, the hospital accepted the case and issued a quote that includes:
Specialized consultation: 120 USD
MRI: 550 USD
Biopsy: 450 USD
Chemotherapy: 1,200 USD
Radiotherapy: 4,200 USD
Tumor removal: 18,000 USD
The woman explains that she does not have the resources to cover these costs; Not even with a family member abroad who can launch a campaign on GoFundMe, the means most used by Cubans to raise medical funds.
“I’m in a race against time,” he declared. The 15 months since the diagnosis have aggravated Nael’s condition and complicate the chances of a successful intervention: if the tumor continues to grow, it could compress vital areas of the brain and become inoperable.
The Cuban mother thinks about the case of Damir Ortiza 10-year-old Cuban boy who died on April 5 at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, where he arrived on March 12 to receive treatment. After an intense process of humanitarian visa management and fundraising, he was able to be transferred by air ambulance, but the wrong diagnoses and treatments on the Island led to his death.
In Cuba, Damir had been diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma (leukemia), but in the United States doctors determined that he actually suffered from Neurofibromatosis type 1, a genetic disease that causes tumors in the nervous system. In addition, he arrived in Miami with other complications that became irreversible.
