Five of the Cuban doctors on trial in Bayamo are sentenced to house arrest.

The Castro regime sentenced to house arrest five of the doctors who were tried for alleged malpractice in the case of the death of a 23-year-old Cuban who arrived at the Bayamo hospital after a motorcycle accident.

According to information shared on Facebook by Katia Ramírez, a relative of one of the implicated, the only one to be acquitted was the radiologist Elizabeth Silvera. “My nephew one year of house arrest, Yoandra one year and six months, Rafael and Henry two years, and Ristian three. All under house arrest and at the disposal of the Provincial Health Directorate.”

The decision has triggered a wave of reactions in the medical community and among the general public. The exiled doctor Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre and doctor Leandro Barbán expressed their outrage and concern about what they consider abuse and flagrant injustice against the doctors who lack the resources to work.

User Yanelis Milagro Pérez Rodríguez regretted that there are few doctors left in the hospitals on the island, and the authorities act in this manner against them. “Doctors now prefer to work in bicitaxi than to continue being humiliated with the meager salary they receive and the demands placed on them, despite not having the tools to do their job.”

The regime aims to blame the doctors for its incompetence in providing everything necessary for patient care in public hospitals. Complaints of medical negligence in Cuba are somewhat common; however, since the Castro regime controls the judiciary, they rarely reach criminal court. In this case, as the victim of the alleged malpractice is a relative of high-ranking officials of the Communist Party in the province of Granma, the judicial file prospered, and the prosecution took an active role in the conviction.

The situation of the sentenced doctors illustrates a profound ethical and legal dilemma. Facing a lack of adequate resources, they chose to treat the patient with what they had at hand, a decision that, although in line with the Hippocratic Oath, was deemed imprudent by the judicial system. According to testimonies from the doctors themselves, during the process, they never heard statements from medical professionals that would demonstrate that the protocol followed on the fateful day was correct under the specific conditions.

According to Katia Ramírez, the doctors’ decision is to appeal the sentence. “Now well: Ingris Porto Mateo, Dumar Rosales, and Osaris Perdomo I hope they can never even get a good night’s sleep, just like the rest of the responsible parties, and we will continue fighting and appealing to whatever instances necessary,” she explained.