14ymedio, Madrid, January 30, 2024 — Ristian Solano, the doctor at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes hospital in Bayamo (Granma) who was sentenced to three years of deprivation of liberty for negligence resulting in death, has broken his silence. His penalty is the highest of those imposed on the six health workers tried in this case, in which only one of those involved, radiologist Elizabeth Silvera, was acquitted.
The doctor has been disappointed by the lack of support from the Ministry of Health, when he and his colleagues denounced their poor working conditions for lack of resources and when they were convicted in a procedure that was full of irregularities.
Solano says that three commissions participated in the investigation to clarify the facts – one from the Provincial Directorate of Health, another from Manzanillo and, finally, the National Health Commission. They determined that from the time of his admission to the hospital, the patient had “elements incompatible with life regardless of medical action. This patient, unfortunately, was condemned to a sad outcome.”
Solano says that three commissions participated in the investigation, which determined that from the time of his admission to the hospital, the patient had “elements incompatible with life”
The doctor describes in great detail, as his colleagues also did, what happened two years ago when the now deceased patient entered the emergency room. His name has never been revealed, but at the time of his arrival, he was accompanied by another person who could speak and answer questions. The 23-year-old patient did not actively cooperate in the interrogation, not because of disability but because he had participated in an illegal race and did not want to have problems.
At that time, when the patient barely revealed that he had fallen off a motorcycle, he had a back injury that was assessed with an apparently normal x-ray and ultrasound. However, he was sent to the multipurpose room to coordinate more specialized tests, two of them (thorax plate and tomography) were declined by radiology due to lack of film and technical defects. A puncture was chosen as an alternative, which could not be done normally either due to the lack of a bladder catheter that, finally, was delivered through coordination with the Urology service. In addition, all the
