Last week, several people close to six Cuban doctors in the province of Granma reported that these They were being tried behind closed doors for alleged medical negligence they committed while trying to save the life of a motorcyclist who was injured months ago..
These are Rafael José Sánchez Vázquez, Yoandra Quesada Labrada, Ristian Solano, Elizabeth Silvera, William Pérez Ramírez and Henrry Rosales Pompa, who are blamed for the young man’s death. However, the doctors have defended themselves by pointing out that they had to operate with limited resources.
This argument has been confirmed by urologist Aldo Luis Zamora Varona, who also worked at the ‘Carlos Manuel de Céspedes’ provincial hospital in Bayamo.
Zamora defends that the fault for the failed surgery was not the doctors who face two to three years in prison, but rather the conditions under which they had to work that day.
Through a post shared on Facebook, the doctor indicated that he participated in the surgery, so he knows firsthand what happened in the operating room.
“I am a urologist at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes General Hospital in Bayamo in the province of Granma, Cuba and since my beginnings in this institution I have never experienced so many shortages of supplies to perform any operation,” the publication began.
The man maintains that the Castro authorities have carried out this judicial process irregularly, stating that the doctors have not received any support from the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP).
“Today, the Ministry of Justice of our province has committed an injustice against these doctors, who have not at any time had any support, not even the slightest from the health authorities of the Provincial Ministry, rather they have contributed to the unfair sanction against these professionals,” he added.
In his opinion, the real culprits are the Castro officials who have allowed the severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies in the country, since this shortage was what made it impossible to carry out the surgery properly.
“The officials have not been able to lower their heads and recognize that the real culprits are the Cuban government, the provincial government, the provincial health directorate, among others, who have allowed us health professionals to work in the worst conditions.” never seen even in the poorest country in the world,” he stated.
The urologist indicated that at the time of the surgery, he was in a nearby operating room, so he witnessed the chaos that broke out.
“They told me that if by chance I could arrange for a probe to pass to the patient, since there was not a single probe of any kind in the hospital. I informed you that I had brought one for the patient that I came to help, but that I did not have to use it and I gave it to her,” she indicated.
The man added that, a few minutes later, the nurse returned scared, pointing out that when the probe was applied the patient began to bleed too much. Since it was an emergency, Zamora decided to enter, detecting that one of the patient’s kidneys was extremely damaged.
The expert decided to remove the kidney that was threatening the patient’s life, but this was made difficult due to the shortage of several essential tools for this type of operation.
“There was no appropriate forceps to clamp the kidney vessels, something essential to perform this maneuver (they are called clams), there was no such instrument in the surgical tray, I had to use a Kelly forceps, any urologist reading this knows that “It’s nonsense,” he explained.
Additionally, he indicated that there were no sutures necessary to ligate the renal pedicle, so he had to search through papers and other things that he carried in a small folder.
“A single suture of that type was found there. If I had not brought that suture, the patient would surely have died in the operating room due to lack of essential supplies to save lives,” he added.
The expert concluded his publication by blaming the Cuban authorities for the deterioration of the health system on the Island, emphasizing that it was not fair for the regime to make its doctors work in those conditions and then not hesitate to imprison them in case something went wrong. .
“It is the total responsibility of the deteriorated health system, which is the responsibility of the Cuban government that uses us and then puts us in prison and is not able to recognize that they are the only ones to blame for those deaths (…) I ask for freedom for those 6 doctors, that they are innocent and I ask that the true culprits be prosecuted,” the publication ends.
The urologist’s post received a lot of attention online, with several doctors showing their support for the doctors on trial and for the urologist who decided to speak out despite the risks this represented.
Finally, a second publication made it clear that Zamora did not regret what he had done, as he stated that the truth was he did not know fear.
