A young boy, Yodelmis Furones Matos, has finally returned home to Baracoa after enduring a severe head injury when the roof of his home collapsed during the passage of Hurricane Oscar. A month ago, six-year-old Yodelmis sustained critical injuries and was admitted to the Antonio María Béguez César Pediatric Hospital (La Colonia) in Santiago de Cuba, where an emergency surgery was performed to address his skull fracture.
The hospital shared photos on their social media, depicting Yodelmis fully recovered and joyfully reunited with his parents. Hospital director Jesús Cabrera praised the swift and effective actions of the medical team at the Octavio de la Concepción and Pedraja Municipal Hospital in Baracoa, where the boy initially received care. The following day, Yodelmis was airlifted to Santiago de Cuba in critical condition, fighting for his life.
Expressing deep gratitude, the family thanked the doctors and nurses at La Colonia hospital in Santiago for their dedicated care. Although by late October he was out of immediate danger, Yodelmis needed to remain in the intensive care unit until he fully recovered from the surgery. Fortunately, he showed no motor, physical, or intellectual impairments from the trauma and responded well to medication.
The disastrous event that resulted in Yodelmis's injuries occurred on October 21st at around 2:00 am in Joa, a small community with a population of just over a thousand. A mango tree fell on the family's home, leaving it in ruins. Kirenia Matos Laborí, Yodelmis's mother, recounted to the local newspaper Sierra Maestra that a wall collapsed on the boy, knocking him unconscious. Amidst a power outage, she and her husband, who suffered a broken leg, struggled to save their son.
They managed to reach a neighbor's home, who then rushed them to the Baracoa hospital in his jeep.