TWO CUBAN DOCTORS BOTH 28 YEARS OF AGE
ONE LEFT TO SERVE CORONA VIRUS PATIENTS IN ITALY, PROMISE TO STAY AS LONG AS NECESSARY IN THE LOMBARDY REGION TO HELP ITALIAN PEOPLE WITH THEIR TRAGEDY. Category 1 of Cuban doctors who go abroad on Medical Missions
THE SECOND ONE LEFT HIS MISSION IN VENEZUELA AND SPENT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS (WHOSE MONEY?) TO COME TO MEXICAN BORDER TO ASK FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM. Category 2 of Cuban Doctors who go abroad.
FROM YAHOO News.
Roberto Arias Hernandez, one of Cuba's so-called "Army of White Coats" sent by his country in March to help Italy battle a spiraling epidemic of COVID-19, said he and his colleagues were "simply doctors."
"Today it is our turn more than ever to play our role," the 28-year-old internist told AFP on a recent morning, before starting his shift at the Crema Maggiore Hospital in the heart of Lombardy, the region hardest hit by the virus.
Arias, who is on his first mission abroad, is part of a group of 51 other doctors and specialists, more than half of whom have experience fighting Ebola in Africa.
Their mission began on March 22, a rainy day marked by "abysmal" cold, recalled the Caribbean islander.
The group of Cubans was dispatched to the city of Crema, whose 34,000 inhabitants were suffering under a dizzying rise in the number of coronavirus cases and a seemingly relentless number of deaths.
In Lombardy, over 15,000 people have died from the virus, nearly half of the 31,610 recorded so far in the entire country, according to latest figures on Saturday.
- The fear -
"Fear is always felt, because you're going to fight... in the epicentre of the pandemic worldwide," confessed Arias.
"You want to do it, but you're also afraid that you won't be up to it," he said, adding that after the initial worries subsided, the team "performed quite well."
Working side by side with colleagues from the other side of the world who trained at different universities posed no problems, Arias said. In terms of technical language, "we understand each other perfectly."
Moreover, Arias said he appreciated the good humour and warmth of the Italians, even under trying circumstances.
"Italian doctors have a personality like the Cubans," Arias said. "They're cheerful, they all greet you; they thank you for being here. Some of them make jokes."
Arias, who has been working non-stop since he arrived, begins the day doing rounds, accompanied by an Italian doctor and a nurse, after the complex step of donning protective gear - a gown, mask, glasses, transparent visor and gloves.
Getting out of bed is the hardest part of the day.
"That's when you feel the fatigue. But you reactivate your neurons and you realize that you came for this and that's what you're fighting for," he said. "You take a shower and tell yourself, 'C'mon, let's do this again.'
- Pride of profession -
Arias, father of an 11-month-old baby, said he has been filled with "indescribable pride" hearing Italians applauding from their balconies and windows for the doctors, nurses and health workers during the quarantine.
He has received hundreds of messages and letters of thanks, many from children. Some people in Crema, hung signs from their windows saying "Thank you Cuba," he said.
The head of the Cuban contingent, Carlos Perez Diaz, said the team would stay as long as necessary to fight the coronavirus, which is still circulating even though the number of infections and deaths have been decreasing.
"We will return to the homeland with our duty done," he said.
Even though most of the Cuban doctors are not religious, one thing Arias would like to do before leaving Italy would be to meet Pope Francis, an Argentinian who has not spared words of praise for doctors fighting the virus.
The second doctor
From Al Jazeera news:
Rojas fled Cuba in 2019 for the US.
After abandoning his mission as a Cuban doctor in Venezuela over tactics used by the Venezuelan government and after speaking out against the Cuban government because they took away his wages and banned him from practicing medicine for three years, he says going to the US was his only option.
"The police beat me, leaving several marks on my body, and they began to monitor and threaten me until I decided to [go to the US] because my life was in danger," he says. He believes the Cuban government will throw him in jail, or worse, if he returns to Cuba.
In the meantime, at the refugee camp,
All he can do is wait and try to help those in need. He spends his time treating patients, learning English, and teaching other migrants about medicine. His goal is to practice medicine in the US. When his final court date arrives, he hopes the judge looks at his case objectively and sees that he has something good to offer the US.
Here you are, two Cuban doctors, one left behind his young family so that he can be of help to Italy struggling with its corona virus and he will stay there as long he is needed and then go home to Cuba.
The other one, he had a chance to serve the people of Venezuela but chose not to, felt his destiny was in the USA and paid the coyotes and other human traffickers a huge sum of money (the going rate now from Cuba to the USA border is 17000 dollars, a huge sum by any one’s reckoning, we won’t ask him where he got the money, we always hear that Cuban doctors are not paid well). He believes he has something good to offer to the USA, so has he as a doctor to offer to any other Spanish speaking country in Latin America, but of course the attraction is Miami.
There are 69000 Cuban doctors serving in more than 49 countries around the world from Category 1.
The second doctor at Mexican-Border trying to enter USA illegally is one of the 1500 Cuban doctors.
But we tend to hear more about the Category 2 doctors than the selfless, sacrificing doctors of category 1. I have seen them in action in Asia, Oceania, South America and Africa.
Category one doctors think of serving Others and Category 2 doctors think of serving themselves.
How many immigrant doctors from Ecuador( I know some sly foxes from here working in Miami) or Colombia or Brasil or Mexico who work in the commercial medical sector in Miami volunteered to go back to their countries and offer their services? If you hear of one, please let me know.
What I hear is that they lament that this covid virus has stopped the patients coming to their offices for consultations. Normally it is the patient calling them for appointments and now it is these doctors in commercial medical practices calling patients to see them on their iPhone and iPad!
