Havana Cuba. – Daniel Alejandro Llamo Hidalgo, 15 years old, has been lying on a bed for five years, in a vegetative state. He seems oblivious to the world, but when they talk to him affectionately he is able to follow the conversations. If they evoke pleasant memories, his gaze denotes brilliance, as if he saw a light at the end.
“It can be better. When he feels surrounded by family, he reacts. Imagine if you had the medical care you need,” he explains to CubaNet Anabel Hidalgo Rosabal, his mother. However, the case of her son is neglected by the authorities of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP). For four years she has not had a neuropsychological evaluation nor has she received the medicines that her treatment requires.
“In hospitals there are no devices or specialists. Right now we don’t know how his brain is, and he needs attention. He had his whole life ahead of him and they ruined it,” denounces Hidalgo, who after several years of negotiations and unsuccessful battles with the MINSAP directors, is calling for help so that his son can obtain a humanitarian visa.
“My hands are tied, I can’t do anything and the people who should be taking care of it sit idly by without any consequences. Getting him out of this country is his only chance, so that he can receive treatment worthy of what he needs and deserves as a human being,” he said.
Adrift
Since he left the hospital after a series of surgeries and returned home five years ago, support from Public Health has been very scarce. For Daniel to receive physical therapy, the family had to pay a specialist, but he emigrated a few months after starting the treatment and since then it is Anabel herself who is in charge of applying the therapy routines that she managed to learn.
“I do the exercises so that the muscles don’t atrophy, and the next day he wakes up worse because I don’t have his spasticity medicine. Botulinum toxin hasn’t appeared in three years, nor did they do stem cell treatment or anything. They said that they were going to do many things with Daniel, and everything was left up in the air,” the woman laments.
The medications the child needs are in short supply in the state pharmacy network, so the family has to purchase them on the informal market. The 10-unit strip of clonazepam, the only basic medication indicated, costs them no less than 600 pesos, while the price of vitamins goes from 500 upwards.
“I charge 3,000 pesos a month, it’s enough for a package of asses, nothing more. The yogurt he consumes right now is worth 4,000 pesos; Add to that foodstuffs like malanga, which is 150 pesos per pound, fruits, chicken…,” he said.
For her, it is a fact that Public Health “shelved” Daniel’s case. “What can I expect?” she asks. “I can’t stay here, in a country where they threw my son off the cliff. “I am not going to resign, they are not going to silence me, it is my duty as a mother to go to the last consequences and take my son to another country where they care about taking care of him,” she stated.
Follow our channel WhatsApp. Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through Telegram.
2024-05-06 16:18:05
#duty #mother #son #country #care
