Cuban Healthcare Workers: A Bastion of Solidarity in Pakistan
Article and photos by JUVENAL BALAN NEYRA - Special Correspondent-
http://www.periodico26.cu/english/health/healthcare010606.htm
Dr. Barbara Haliberto Armenteros is one of many Cuban healthcare workers bringing honor to her country and province of Holguin. She runs the Cuban tent hospital in Data in the Mansehra region of northern Pakistan that, as of November 15, has been named the Mariana Grajales Hospital, in honor of the 19th century Cuban heroine.When we arrived in the camp, we found Dr. Haliberto attending to an urgent case. Next to her, a team of female doctors and nurses were treating a patient suffering from severe pain.When Dr.Haliberto is not in the operating hall, she can be found making her rounds checking on the daily activity of the tent hospital. Early in the day, when the morning coffee and breakfast haven’t yet started to heat the body, she is already running around checking up on power outlets for the new physiotherapy equipment or carrying supplies into the tent hospital.
Dr. Haliberto starts the day with an early morning, ten-minute workout to stretch her muscles before organizing the day’s priorities and distributing tasks. When needed, she puts aside her administrative duties to pick up the scalpel. With the same resolve and confidence employed to lead the 55 Cubans working on this international mission, Dr. Haliberto now dons the mask as surgeon.Barbara has been a surgical specialist since 1998 and gained international experience with a working mission in Guyana. She now has before the major challenge of running this large tent hospital, with several emergency rooms, an operating room, and laboratory, X-Ray and ultrasound services.“We are 32 women and 23 men that work in this hospital. We all know that to be successful we have to work together and so, we are like the Musketeers: ‘all for one and one for all,’” says Dr. Haliberto.
“We came to Data on November 12 and started to set up the camp in what was a cornfield. Nine days later, we had functional emergency rooms set up and by December 3, the operating hall. So far we have performed six surgeries, the first being for acute appendicitis.“When I was asked to run the hospital I said to myself: Don’t say no, take the challenge! I thought of my mom Margarita back in Cuba, who is 65 years old and taking care of my five-year-old Beltsy, and I took the responsibility, confident in the upbringing my mom had given me with her strong character mixed with tenderness, confidence and love.
“The mission in Guyana was an essential part of my professional, personal and spiritual development. It prepared me for life and now that experience is really coming in handy.But Dr. Haliberto’s daily tasks go beyond her role as doctor and administrator. She takes time to chat with the staff, hear their problems, help if they need to communicate with their families by phone or internet.In Pakistan she is joined by her husband Dr. Juan Carlos Mirabal, a specialist in general medicine and qualified in rehabilitation and physiatrics. He is in charge of logistics at the camp. The tent hospital in Data continues to grow. In a few days, it will be offering physiotherapy and rehabilitation services. There is a warm and friendly atmosphere at the camp, kept clean and welcoming with dedication and organization and little personal touches such as bulletin boards in all of the tents, and others. The work of the hospital is a visibly collective effort.
Today is a special day: all of the Cuban collaborators received a New Year’s Greeting card signed by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro along with a photo taken of the group in Havana’s Palace of the Revolution prior to their heading off to Pakistan.Gudelia, Lisbet, Vilma, Lazara, Fanny, Silvia, Yaquelín, Ida, Osana, Milagro, Pastora, Beatriz and the rest of the 55 healthcare workers, with their daily dedication, confirm that, together with Dr. Haliberto, they know how to live up to the name of the tent hospital, a bastion of solidarity in Pakistan.