00:00 Alejandro Navea Maldonado is a Cuban health promoter who has been waiting for an appointment for a cataract surgery since 2018.
00:08 The disease has advanced so much that he can no longer exercise his profession.
00:12 Alejandro showed ADN Cuba the messages he has sent to the Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology Ramón Pando Ferrer, requesting an appointment for surgery.
00:22 The health agency has only told him that a person will contact him, but so far this has not happened.
00:29 Alejandro is an example of the negligence of the health system in Cuba.
00:33 His case is a clear example of how people who need medical attention cannot get it,
00:39 even when it comes to a common and relatively simple surgery such as cataracts.
00:45 My name is Alejandro Navea Maldonado.
00:49 I am a health promoter, I belong to the Provincial Technical Team of Health.
00:54 At the moment I am not exercising any function because of the problem of my sight.
00:59 I have practically no right eye, I see practically nothing.
01:04 On the right eye I see a little hole and on the left eye it is completely closed.
01:10 I see nothing, I have a full eye, but I see nothing.
01:13 I dedicated myself to being a health promoter in the function of work, in the system of health care,
01:22 but I can no longer exercise the function because now I am in my house to do the orders,
01:29 to go and buy the things that I need, and practically on the left eye I see nothing.
01:35 Since 2018 I have been waiting for this situation.
01:39 I saw with both eyes.
01:41 In 2018 I had a small cataract in the eye,
01:47 so it got complicated with the years and the years went from 2018 to 2023.
01:54 I practically see nothing on the left eye and I see through a little hole on the right eye.
02:02 Going to consultations, I have had communication with the hospital Pando Ferrer,
02:10 the Pando Ferrer Institute, I have had communication.
02:13 They have stopped communicating with me, they do not want to attend to me.
02:17 They told me that the population care would call me.
02:20 I already did two interviews with the population care in the hospital and they have not called me.
02:27 I'm waiting.
02:29 I want to see the director, they don't let me see the director either.
02:33 I'm in the consultation problem, in the national one too,
02:38 and they don't call me either because I called the doctor yesterday,
02:43 and she told me that there was no supply, that there was nothing to operate,
02:47 that there are no lenses, there are no lenses, here in this country there are no lenses.
02:50 Here the hospitals are completely collapsed.
02:53 I am going to report to the whole world so that they know my case, because it is happening to me.
02:58 Here the hospitals are completely collapsed, there is no medicine, there is nothing.
03:02 Nothing, nothing, nothing, everything is thrown on the floor, complete.
03:07 There are no pills, no uragine, no drugs, there is nothing.
03:12 And I am practically waiting to operate myself.
03:16 I want to ask for international help, international help,
03:21 the Red Cross International because I belong to the Red Cross too.
03:24 I am a graduate of the Red Cross.
03:26 So I want to ask for help to see if they can operate me.
03:29 To a foreign country that is taking care of me because I am afraid that they will operate me here in Cuba.
03:34 What do the health authorities tell you or what does the health institute tell you
03:39 about why they don't give you the appointment?
03:41 What is the reason and justification that they give you?
03:44 No, for that part I have not received more answers.
03:49 And nothing, they know my phone number, they know everything, my situation.
03:54 They know my name, they know where I live.
03:57 And you know, I have practically lost my fear because I am not afraid to file a complaint
04:04 because I have a disease that I have been positive since 1989.
04:09 I am a case of suicide, they call me taking therapy.
04:12 And why should I be afraid if I have not died with this disease in 37 years?
04:19 I am afraid of the government, I will never have it.
04:22 So I have to talk about the bad things, the bad things they are doing here.
04:28 I have to talk about it.
04:30 I am not afraid, I am not afraid.
04:32 Whatever they want to do, they will do it.
04:34 I am a person sentenced to death.
04:37 They can do whatever they want to do.
04:39 I don't care.
04:41 I don't care.
04:42 I have been living with this disease for 37 years.
04:44 I don't care about anything.
04:46 They have taken my milk, 12 years without milk.
04:48 They have taken my fish, they have not given me fish.
04:52 I have been almost two years without being given fish.
04:54 A diet that was sent to me by the doctor.
04:57 That was at the world level.
04:59 At the world level.
05:01 That diet was at the world level, of the HIV/AIDS patients.
05:04 And they have taken my milk, they have taken my fish.
05:07 They don't give me chicken, what they give me is two liters of meat and 30 eggs.
05:11 They have taken everything else from me.
05:13 They say that you graduated from the Red Cross.
05:18 Have you tried to get help from them or from another international organization?
05:23 Yes, the National Hospital.
05:25 There was a doctor who was attending me there.
05:28 Because the case that they couldn't attend me here, in the Ferrer area.
05:33 The doctor was attending me there.
05:35 So I took the doctor to attend me there.
05:38 To see if in any of the hospitals they could operate on me.
05:41 In one or the other.
05:43 In the National Hospital, they say that there are no resources, no gloves, no glasses, nothing for me.
05:48 And in the evening, waiting for the answer, they know my phone number and they call me.
05:52 I had a doctor who was attending me, a Chilean doctor, his name was Clevin.
05:56 A Chilean doctor who was attending me.
05:58 When he left, he left me waiting.
06:01 He left me without consultation, he left me outside.
06:05 He told me to stay outside.
06:06 And he didn't leave me with any of the other doctors.
06:08 And now I'm abandoned in consultation, without a doctor from the Ferrer area.
06:13 And I have the history of the clinic, I sent it to you.
06:16 You saw the history of the clinic.
06:18 For all the papers I have done.
06:20 I also have the history of the National Clinic with all the papers I have done.
06:23 And I practically, in the Ferrer area, I was abandoned by that Chilean doctor.
06:27 He went outside, his name is Clevin.
06:30 He went outside and he didn't give me an explanation, he didn't tell me anything.
06:33 He didn't tell me that I had been to another doctor.
06:36 And now I'm here, without a doctor.
06:40 I'm here in the desert, I don't have a doctor to help me.
06:43 What I wanted was to ask for help.
06:46 To see how they can solve my situation, my eyes, my lenses.
06:52 Because if this country doesn't have lenses, I won't stay blind.
06:56 I won't stay blind because I have a desire to see, I have a desire to live.
07:00 And I don't want to stay blind.
07:02 I wanted to ask for help, to see how people can touch their hearts to me.
07:08 To see if they can donate me the lenses or operate me outside.
07:11 If they can't donate me the lenses, operate me outside.
07:14 I want to operate outside.
07:16 I want to operate outside.
07:18 I prefer to operate outside than to operate here in Cuba.
07:21 Because the situation here is chaotic.
07:23 It's chaotic, every day is less, less, less, less, less.
07:26 And everything is the high prices.
07:28 I practically get a check for 1,540 pesos.
07:32 That's what I live on.
07:34 A check for 1,540 pesos.
07:36 I don't live on that, I don't live on that check.
07:39 It's not enough for me at all.
07:41 (upbeat music)
07:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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