Distributed by The Cuba Free Press Project.

Havana, August 27, 1997, Cuba Press

Medical Attention Wanting in Cuba. by Marvin Hernandez Monzon, Cuba Press.

Forty-eight hours went by before a patient with acute myocardial infarct was able to see doctors in Villa Clara to receive proper medical attention, reported medical personnel in that locality. Evangelio Abalo Fernandez arrived at the provincial hospital Arnaldo Milian Castro in Santa Clara at 3 in the morning, with cardiac pain and short of breath. From there he was referred to the old hospital in that city, which took another 10 hours of wait, hours which the patient had to spend on a stretcher in the hallway to the emergency room in the health care center.

He was then sent back home, 18 kilometers from the hospital, without having received any treatment. He then tried the Polyclinic Hospital in Ranchuelo who turned him back home as well, even though this was Evangelio Abalo's fifth infarct - affirmed our medical source.

Due to the persistence of the well-known malady, he once more went to the old hospital in Santa Clara where he was attended to by Dr. Osnedo who confirmed that Evangelio Abalo Fernandez was indeed having an infarct. The diligent efforts of this doctor finally succeeded in having the sick man admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital.

By Marvin Hernandez Monzon, Cuba Press.