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PINAR DEL RIO, May 13 (Víctor Rolando Arroyo, UPECI /
www.cubanet.org) - Public health officials in Guane, Pinar del Río
province, have blocked independent physicians’ efforts to review charts in
an increasing number of obstetrics cases in which complications have arisen,
apparently for bureaucratic reasons.
Several cases have come to the attention of the Independent Medical
Association of Cuba which, in their opinion, merit further investigation.
At the end of January, Ms. Jany Roque Carballo, 23, was in labor for six
days until she was delivered by caesarean section.
In May, 2001, Ms. Yusneri Carmona, 25, was in labor for three days. Four
months later, her child was diagnosed with central nervous system damage and
symptoms of epilepsy.
Ms. Midialis Montano Santovenia, 28, was in labor for three days in October,
2001, until she taken to surgery. Her child suffers acute respiratory distress.
All cases that have come to the attention of the Association have had normal
development; all complications have come up at term, say the doctors. "We
know of bureaucratic delays of more than 12 hours in inducing births," says
Dr. Ruiz Rivas. "Such is the case of Ms. Roque, and others in which the
families have been kept in the dark as to the complications that have come up.
In all cases, the patients arrived at the hospital in plenty of time to prevent
problems."
A team of Association physicians, consisting of Drs. Sergio Ruiz Rivas,
Janey Hernández Piñero, and Héctor Cruz Santovenia, tried
to document some of these cases at the Abel Santamaría maternity hospital
on April 16, only to be blocked by two men who failed to identify themselves,
but who prevailed upon the hospital’s director to deny them access to the
medical charts they sought.
Versión
original en español
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