MIAMI, United States. — María Dolores Toledo Brioso, a resident of the Havana municipality of Boyeros, denounced before CubaNet the critical situation of his home, declared uninhabitable by the architects of his community.
According to his testimony, the humble home in which he lives suffered a collapse last year that has left consequences both for his quality of life and for the health of his grandson, a few-month-old baby.
“The current situation of my home is critical. The architects who have come here to give an opinion say that the house is uninhabitable. But hey, it’s my home and I have no other place to stay,” Toledo Brioso told this newspaper.
Although the collapse in the house occurred when his grandson had not even been born, it did leave consequences on his health.
“My daughter calls me because a piece of ceiling fell. She was 31 weeks pregnant. A neighbor took me to the González Coro. The doctor who was on duty took her blood pressure and told the nurse to put on her belt to monitor it. Tests done after the collapse showed that the baby’s heartbeat had slowed and that she had a retroplacental hematoma. The baby was suffocating. All of this is a product of the collapse,” said the woman.
Toledo Brioso adds that his grandson had to undergo lung maturation and that he was born underweight. In addition, he had to be kept in a nutrition room until he reached five pounds.
“At eight months old, the baby started with asthma, but it is what the doctor says: ‘the environment does not favor it'”.
María Dolores Toledo Brioso regretted that her housing situation was not taken into account, despite having risked her life working as a nurse between 2020 and 2021, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The woman has presented the case to Housing, the Government and the Provincial Administration Council of Havana, but claims only to have received evasions.
