[CubaNews] IMPORTANT: Cuba Border Doctors in Venezuela

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(This is a wonderful response to those disgusting articles in the U.S. media
claiming that some Cuban doctors in Venezuela have defected, and urging that
the U.S. government try to do more to help more of them defect.)
==========================================================================

GRANMA
March 20, 2007

Cuba Border Doctors in Venezuela

Ronald Suarez Rivas and Alberto Borrego Avila (Photos), 
Granma Special Correspondents

?This girl is dying!? As the key to the cabinet door starts to stick, with
the mother and the grandmother crying, a series of thoughts run through the
doctor?s head:  ?If it is a seizure, I must make her breathe and give her
some oxygen; if it is a convulsion due to fever, I must bring her
temperature down?? 

OSVALDO (LEFT), CARLIS AND JORGE FONDLY RECALL THEIR YEARS OF STUDY IN CUBA.

Jorge Yanez knew that his first emergency case would be different. He would
not have the back up of hospital services or a specialist to double check
his diagnosis, as happened while he studied in Cuba.

In spite of all this, he would keep his composure. He would have to convince
and be convinced about his training. And all would have to take place
quickly.

The girl is dying! Flashbacks of his medical school classes and the image of
the professor repeating treatments to remember when there are just a few
minutes available to fight for life.

VENEZUELANS DO NOT HAVE TO CROSS THE BORDER TO GET MEDICAL ATTENTION.

?Temperature at 40 degrees and she is unconscious. It is a convulsion due to
fever,? he tells himself. He injects diazepam intravenously. Five minutes
later the girl reacts. She is very weak, but safe.

The young doctor breathes a sigh of relief. He is in Maurak, an indigenous
community to the south of the Great Savannah, a few kilometres from the
border with Brazil.

He is one of the members of the 51st Battalion, made up of the first
graduates of the Latin America School of Medicine of Havana, who are
currently working in border areas, attending the poorest and remotest
communities of Venezuela.

As most of his colleagues, he never thought of becoming a doctor. This is
why he recalls with special affection his years on the island, the
dedication and commitment of his professors, and the warmth of the Cuban
people.

Carlis Barreto, 26, and Orlando Isaac, 28, were invited to Cuba to fulfil an
opportunity that they were denied in their own country: studying a
university career.

Jorge Yanez, 30, had accepted the idea of not pursuing university studies
and for five years he had been working in a gas station. Carlis had enrolled
in a private university, but he could only afford the first two months of
classes.
?In Cuba I lived beautiful experiences, and I left behind very dear friends.
Medical doctors there are excellent. One learns a lot with them, because
they teach you to see the patient as a human being and not as merchandise.?

Leaving the family behind was the toughest decision. Margarita had never
been separated from her parents nor had Jorge thought of being far from his
six-month-old son. But the sacrifice was worthwhile, all agree.

They are all border doctors and work in Mapurí, Betania, Maurak (Bolivar
State), Atabapo, Rio Negro, La Esmeralda (Amazon) and Alta Guajira (Zulia)
in communities close to the borders of Colombia and Brazil.

The young men and women who make up the 51st Battalion act as experienced,
sensible and capable professionals. ?Here, doctors graduate to work in
hospitals, and they rely on hospital equipment and laboratories.?

?In Cuba we learnt how to use all that, but we are also trained to work in
remote communities and to make diagnosis without having those resources. We
take time to observe the patient.?

Margarita is working with Cuban doctor Yandi Barroso in Atabapo, in the
Amazon, and makes field trips to 56 indigenous communities in the
Orinoco-Ventuari basin.

Carlis is working in the southern Bolivian town of Mapauri, and four other
smaller villages.

Jorge?s homecoming to Maurak was a special occasion: the first community
member to become a doctor. 

They are all called ?the Cubans? for having studied on the Island and taking
posts other doctors rejected. They work, teach and are always willing to
make house calls, with backpack, aboard boats or helicopters, anywhere they
are needed.



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