The health authorities of the province of Camagüey denied the release of the doctor, Camilo Oliva, who needed a humanitarian visa after years of struggle with the difficulties of undergoing hemodialysis.
In June 2023, the Cuban doctor declared that he had to leave the country to continue his treatment because the conditions on the island were difficult.
“In the month of August, I received the denial of release as a health professional, and they suggested that I give a summary of my illness to grant the long-awaited release as a humanitarian cause. After countless days of waiting, they gave the negative again,” the doctor told ADN Cuba.
The doctor considers that the health system in Cuba has a shortage of doctors and that they want “a terminally ill patient for 5 years who gives everything for his patients and decides to recover and die without treatment before he is released from the country.”
Oliva has already stated in our media that the only solution to his case is a humanitarian visa because “the condition of hemodialysis patients has worsened over the years, due to the lack of supplies and the lack of personnel to take care of them in Cuba.”
At the beginning of August, Oliva asked for help to get the necessary medical equipment to undergo hemodialysis because it is scarce on the island, but his condition is dangerous, and he does not see a long-term solution for his condition in Cuba.
“Despite requesting a humanitarian visa, it is not possible to obtain it, even with the support of many who know the situation I present, but there is no way to achieve it. Therefore, I am requesting a lawyer who lives in the USA help me make the request for humanitarian parole due to illness to speed up the process because I have a sponsor,” he explained.
Weeks later, Oliva lamented in a Facebook post that he had lived without a kidney for “almost five years, and those who know me know that he is fulfilling a mission for the same health system that continues to abandon me and to further shorten my quality and time” in life”.
The doctor said that he had lost the possibility of a kidney transplant because he contracted hepatitis C due to poor hygiene. He now lives with his last arteriovenous fistula without the possibility of any other procedure.
He also said that he began undergoing hemodialysis in November 2018, when he had kidney failure after seven operations at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital in Havana.
“When I got sick, I started the usual pains in the health system because of the treatment schedules and the serious condition I was in. After a month, I got a deadly bacteria in my blood, and thanks to doctor friends, I got the definitive treatment and killed it because I used eight antibiotics “.
Two months later, in January 2019, they removed the only kidney he was eligible for for a kidney transplant that had yet to arrive.
