Cuban care

Doctors at a Cuban village no longer expect their patients to die and credit the work done by local volunteers, says the president of a humanitarian organization.

About 20 volunteers with Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity helped load the large ocean container on Saturday. The storehouse on Van Horn Street contained a variety of donated medical equipment from X-ray machines, crutches and computers. All the equipment is scheduled to be shipped to a small central Cuban village called Villa Clara.
Jerome Harvey, president of MEMO Cuba, said the value of the equipment shipped was around a third of a million. He said Cuban health care took a 180 degree turn for the better since MEMO started its humanitarian initiative.

He said the impact MEMO has made is huge.

"I asked a doctor what kind of difference has MEMO made," Harvey said. "He said before MEMO most of the patients came here died. Now most of them live."

Harvey added they would continue to assist Cuba until its economy recovered enough that it could support itself. Until that day, volunteers will continue to ship containers filled with supplies to help those in need, he said.

Riita Rossi, a retired nurse, wanted to do something with her free time and volunteered with MEMO six years ago. She had visited Cuba in April and assisted by taking a few X-rays at the hospital. Her training as a nurse came in handy if someone didn’t know a procedure or how to use some of the equipment, she said.

"I’ve been to Cuba before but this was different," Rossi said. "We had to take a three hour taxi drive and they wouldn’t let us go into the hospital. We were considered tourists because we weren’t with Dr. Harvey."

Rossi went into Dr. Aurora Riera’s clinic and noticed the small space had most of its office and medical supplies provided by Thunder Bay health care providers. She looked at all the donated equipment and thought of how pathetic it was compared to the more technologically advanced equipment back home in Canada, she said.

Although surprised by how poor the medical equipment was, she said she was impressed with how clean the clinic was and how properly dressed the nurses were.

"Very professional nurses," she said. "They were dressed all in white and very clean. Despite the equipment, everything was up to standards and they were very knowledgeable."

MEMO Cuba shipped 39 ocean containers of redundant Canadian hospital equipment and supplies to Villa Clara over the last six years. These donations included a mobile breast-screening clinic run by Riera who arrived in Thunder Bay for six weeks of specialized study. She said she would learn how to read a mammography at the Thunder Bay Regional Cancer Centre.

Riera wanted to learn the latest techniques for earlier diagnosis of breast cancer and these techniques aren’t available back in Cuba, she said.

"I need more training, I am not a radiologist," Riera said. "I tried to get this kind of training back in Cuba but the training here is better."

Riera said she was very glad to see so many people help her country.