61 years of medical collaboration between Cuba and the world. (Photos: Dalia Reyes Perera)
By Dalia Reyes Perera*
The beginning of international medical collaboration 61 years ago is one of the most beautiful and noble pages that Cuba has written in the history of the Revolution. In these more than six decades, health specialists on the island have treated millions of people in 165 countries.
Doctor Fernando Guillermo Grondona Torres is a witness of that immeasurable love for humanity. The current President of the National Medical Commission of the Cuban Mission in Venezuela, arrived in this sister land since 2020 in an advance group of six experts to confront Covid and reduce morbidity and mortality due to the Pandemic; Subsequently, after a brief stay in the Homeland, he was appointed to assume the responsibility that he fulfills today with a devotion and dedication that comes to the surface with the aim of providing specialized care, dispensary and health prevention for collaborators. in fulfillment of one of the missions given by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro to take care of the quality of life of the internationalists of the island.
As he expresses, “our medicine is characterized by solidarity, the dedication of our professionals, non-commercialization, we do not prescribe medications above those that are necessary, to satisfy laboratories and companies as a business, which happens in the capitalist world. “We defend ethics and respect for human beings,” he emphasizes.
Graduated in 1988 from the first Carlos J. Finlay Contingent, he worked in several medical institutions in Havana, including the Frank País Orthopedic Hospital and the Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital, with responsibilities in charge of acute care services.
He later graduated as a specialist in Internal Medicine, and became a Master in Medical Emergencies and assistant professor, in addition to holding various responsibilities, until in 2006 he went to work in the Emergency and Therapy department of the Ministry of Public Health.
A curriculum that grows due to his tenacity and commitment: as part of the “Henry Reeve” International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics, he was part of the Miracle Mission through the Alba agreements in Venezuela and other Latin American nations ( Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico, Nicaragua, Bahamas, Jamaica, Guatemala, Venezuela among others), thus he traveled to more than fifteen countries helping to bring the light of vision to brothers in the region.
Likewise, he carried out an internationalist mission in Angola until 2010 and returned to work in the National Medical Emergency System of the Health Directorate. His internationalist experience made him a better professional and a better human being.
“I had the opportunity to visit a Hospital in Brazil, the first thing they did when they arrived was not to see the doctor, but to go directly to the billing for medical services, there they informed how much the care was going to cost; In Angola, professionals did not attend to patients if they did not bring the money; more than one Angolan delayed entering an operating room because his family did not have the money to cover the expenses; In Paraguay we saw girls of 14 and 15 years old carrying children in the streets, those babies were rented by the mothers themselves to give more pity and collect money, that had a great impact,” she confesses.
Doctor Fernando Guillermo Grondona Torres has specialized in caring for seriously ill patients. He underwent international courses in medical assistance and chemical weapons disaster protection in Lithuania, Turkey and China. Today he insists on the need to update knowledge, constantly prepare oneself, because in his opinion “the professional who is dedicated to medical emergencies must know the pathologies of people who are seriously ill, quickly see the changes in the patient’s symptoms, and immediately stabilize the parameters, because if we stop to think about the causes, we lose the lives of those people, we must act quickly to resolve the urgent health situation, the doctor who dedicates himself to this has to have security, confidence in the procedures, in the organization charts established in the world, to be clear in what order of priorities it acts, the classic ABC, it may be that there is a wound, an amputation, but if there is no air in the person there is no life, if there is no circulation there is no life , and that is the first thing that must be attended to, then the causes are sought, but the most important thing in an emergency is to save the person”
The President of the Medical Commission of the Cuban Mission in Venezuela does not have time, every moment he remains aware of the health of each collaborator, today with digital means that allow him to make agile and safe decisions.
Despite the stress and high responsibility that his work entails, he feels immense pride in what he does “because my country has appointed me, I feel useful in the task I do, I have mastered the most efficient use of digital media to face the situations of illness of collaborators, we have Medical Commissions in the States and Centers
Regional ones that have material and human resources and we prioritize the evolution and diagnoses of the patients from here.”
From Venezuela he takes away teachings and lessons, among them “how to face an epidemic that the world had never had like Covid, we incorporated epidemiological knowledge, and it was a possibility of applying it in practice,” he emphasizes.
On May 23, 1963, Cuba sent the first Cuban Medical Brigade to Algeria, opening a path that has been maintained for more than six decades. Since then, health specialists from the island have been present in countries affected by earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, epidemics and volcanic eruptions, among other catastrophes.
These are learnings that cannot be forgotten, emphasizes this expert who insists on the idea that “medicine cannot be a commodity, it cannot be commercialized, because then the profession becomes dehumanized, we must apply the clinical method, which achieves 80 % of diagnoses”.
More than sixty years of an army of white coats that has brought love to the world, in which “we have learned to have a greater awareness of giving what we have and not what we have left over, Venezuela is a brotherly, supportive country, we have gone through difficult situations and we feel proud to help our brothers, it has been a key element in continental unity and an example of selfless collaboration with our people in Latin America,” says this proud man who today is convinced that 61 years after the International Medical Collaboration of Cuba, the miracle of love and solidarity grows.
*Radio Habana Cuba correspondent in Villa Clara, from Venezuela.
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