Patient Left Untended and Covered in Flies at Granma Hospital

A man admitted to the Celia Sánchez Manduley Hospital in Manzanillo, Granma, was left untended and covered in flies, with no healthcare personnel attending to his situation due to the absence of a companion. This was revealed by independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on his social media, who received a citizen complaint along with images of the patient's state of neglect.

"That man was in the emergency room of the hospital, covered in flies. He had eaten, and no one had bothered to remove the tray. No one wants to work," said the source who sent the images to the journalist.

Mayeta Labrada highlighted that the complaint shed light on the negligence of the Public Health personnel in the municipality of Manzanillo, particularly their indifference towards the needs of "hospitalized patients without family."

Alarming Parallels to Previous Neglect Cases

“These upsetting photos were taken in the emergency room of the Provincial Teaching Hospital Celia Sánchez Manduley,” the journalist noted, calling for public cooperation to identify the patient and ascertain his health status.

The case is reminiscent of an elderly woman whose plight stirred social media in late February, when images surfaced showing the neglect suffered by many elderly people in the country.

Journalist Ernesto Morales published photos of an elderly woman who arrived at the Clinical Surgical Hospital "La Dependiente" in Havana, covered in ants and maggots. She died half an hour later. Following the uproar, Cuban authorities were forced to respond, stating that the woman had died from Norwegian scabies, a severe variant of common scabies known as crusted scabies.

According to Morales, two other elderly men had arrived at the hospital in similar conditions and also died. All the patients came from the 28 de Enero Nursing Home located on Dolores Street between 10 and 11, Lawton, Diez de Octubre municipality.

In his post, Morales shared a video showing the woman’s face completely covered by maggots and black insects resembling ants crawling over the sheet covering her from the neck down. The images clearly showed the insects moving over the elderly woman.

The deterioration of public health services is a harsh reality increasingly affecting Cubans. A lack of investment, the massive deployment of doctors on foreign missions, and the migration crisis, among other reasons, have led to the collapse of the island’s healthcare system.

In addition to the shortage of medications and medical supplies, the deterioration of hospitals and infrastructure under the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), and the erosion of values among professionals whose training quality has declined in recent times, compound the problem.

In March, a Cuban mother took to social media to denounce the mistreatment she received at a Havana hospital, which almost cost her a hand. Yanet Iglecias Díaz recounted the ordeals she faced at the Miguel Enríquez Hospital, known as "La Benéfica," from which she says she left feeling insulted.

"I arrived at three in the afternoon, and they kept me there until 11 at night just to take an X-ray. Then the X-ray technician didn't want to give me the X-ray," she said.

The complainant stated that the cast she was given was poorly applied, and "three days later, my entire hand was green and more swollen than before. It looked like my hand and part of my arm were going to rot."

In mid-February, another elderly Cuban woman suffered mistreatment at the Calixto García Hospital in Havana after arriving with a hip fracture that was not properly attended to. The elderly woman was placed on a stretcher without a mattress, lying on the metal springs.

"Hello family, the apathy and hatred towards the people have reached rock bottom. The dictatorship forgot about its people, its children, and its elderly over 65 years ago. This was two days ago at Calixto García Hospital," denounced an activist alongside photographs of the distressing incident.