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<b>Remarks by Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba,
meeting with the medical doctors assembled to offer assistance to the
American people in areas affected by hurricane Katrina. Havana Convention
Center, September 4, 2005.<br><br>
</b></div>
<br><br>
Dear members of the medical force assembled to offer assistance to those
affected by hurricane Katrina in the South of the United States;<br><br>
<br><br>
Distinguished guests;<br><br>
<br><br>
Fellow Cubans:<br><br>
<br><br>
Hardly 48 hours ago I concluded my remarks on the Round Table broadcast
where I once again explicitly offered the United States to send a medical
force with the necessary means to offer emergency assistance to the tens
of thousands of Americans trapped in the flooded areas and the ruins
Katrina left behind after lashing Louisiana and other southern states.
<br><br>
It was clear to us that those who faced the greatest danger were these
huge numbers of poor, desperate people, many elderly citizens with health
situations, pregnant women, mothers and children among them, all in
urgent need of medical care. <br><br>
In such a situation, regardless of how rich a country may be, the number
of scientists it has or how great its technical breakthroughs have been,
what it needs are young, well-trained and experienced professionals, who
have done medical work in anomalous circumstances, and that, with a
minimum of resources, can be immediately transported by air or any other
available means to specific facilities or sites where the lives of human
beings are in danger. <br><br>
Cuba, a short distance away from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, was
in a position to offer assistance to the American people. At that moment,
the billions of dollars the United States could receive from countries
all over the world would not have saved a single life in New Orleans and
other critical areas where people were in mortal danger. Cuba would be
completely powerless to help the crew of a spaceship or a nuclear
submarine in distress, but it could offer the victims of hurricane
Katrina, facing imminent death, substantial and crucial assistance. And
this is what it’s been doing since Tuesday, August 30, at 12:45 pm, when
the winds and downpours had barely ceased. We don’t regret it in the
least, even if Cuba was not mentioned in the long list of countries that
offered their solidarity to the US people. <br><br>
Knowing that I could rely on men and women like you, I took the liberty
of reiterating our offer three days later, promising that in less than 12
hours the first 100 doctors, carrying the necessary medical resources in
their backpacks, could be in Houston; that an additional 500 could be
there 10 hours later and that, within the next 36 hours, 500 more, for a
total of 1100, could join them to save at least one of the many lives at
risk from such dramatic events. <br><br>
Perhaps those unaware of our people’s sense of honor and spirit of
solidarity thought this was some kind of bluff or a ridiculous
exaggeration. But our country never toys with matters as serious as this,
and it has never dishonored itself with demagogy or deceit. That is why
we proudly gather in this hall, at Havana’s Convention Center where only
three days ago we observed a minute of silence for the victims of the
hurricane which battered the United States, and from where our heartfelt
condolences were extended to that brotherly people. <br><br>
Here we are, and not 1100 but 1586 doctors, including 300 additional
doctors, in response to the increasingly alarming news that keep coming
in. In fact, another 300 doctors, approximately, have joined this group
at the last minute. They were called in and we’ve already announced that
we are willing to send thousands more if it were necessary. But these 300
doctors are in other halls of the Convention Center, taking part in this
function. In just 24 hours, all of the doctors summoned to carry out this
mission, coming from all parts of the country, met in the capital. We
have shown the utmost punctuality and precision. <br><br>
You bring honor to the noble medical profession. With your quick,
unwavering response to the call of duty and your willingness to work in
unchartered and difficult conditions, you are writing a new page in the
history of solidarity among the peoples and are showing a course of peace
to the suffering and imperiled human species to which we all
belong.<br><br>
This medical force, I mean the 1586 initially mentioned,
includes:<br><br>
<ul>
<li>1097 specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine, 600 of whom are
pursuing Masters degrees in Medical Sciences;
<li>351 general practitioners and intensive care specialists;
<li>72 healthcare professionals with two medical specialties, and
<li>66 specialists in cardiology, pediatrics, gastroenterology, surgery,
psychiatry, epidemiology and other specialties.
</ul><br>
<br><br>
Of this medical force:<br><br>
<ul>
<li>699 doctors have served in one or more international missions in 43
different countries, and some have even served in three missions, and
<li>727 were ready and about to leave Cuba to serve in missions in Latin
America, Africa and Asia; they joined this force in view of the dramatic
situation unfolding in the southern United States, while other similar
professionals will meet our internationalist commitment in other
countries.
</ul><br>
<br><br>
The average age of these health professionals is 32 years. Most of them
had not yet been born when the revolution triumphed and some had not even
been born 15 years after the triumph of the revolution, they are the
product of these hard years. The average work experience is of no less
than 10 years. Some have more experience, some less, most have more
experience. <br><br>
Of the total force, 729 are men and 857 are women. <br><br>
The precarious sanitary conditions and dangers left in the United States
by hurricane Katrina are powerfully described by international press
agencies and the US press:<br><br>
<br><br>
The EFE agency reports that in the Houston’s stadium, in Texas, presently
sheltering more than 15 thousand people evacuated from New Orleans,
hardly three thousand have received medical care. Highly infectious
diseases have been reported there while outbreaks of diarrhea and
vomiting threaten to quickly spread due to overcrowding. <br><br>
Yesterday’s edition of the Washington Post reports that, at the moment,
Mississippi’s chief needs are fuel and medical assistance. <br><br>
An AP press dispatch reports that two of the most severely affected
hospitals in New Orleans were evacuated after its desperate doctors spent
two days making the difficult decision of which patients should receive
the scarce supplies of food, water and medicine. Three terminally-ill
patients died during the evacuation and the number of patients who
perished before assistance finally arrived could not be determined.
Several hospital employees administered themselves intravenous saline
solutions while waiting to be rescued. <br><br>
Fox News network emphasized yesterday that New Orleans health
professionals are working around the clock, without rest, to treat
patients in critical condition and to prevent a catastrophe in the
already overcrowded medical facilities. These health professionals have
been working without rest and their strength is running out; something
must be done urgently. <br><br>
Yesterday, a Louisiana Health and Hospitals Department spokesperson, Kyle
Viator, declared that “we have patients in dialysis, others with
diabetes, people who require regular treatment and prescription drugs.
Our resources are running out. At the moment, one third of the population
is displaced, and this group of people includes our medical personnel”.
<br><br>
An article published in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo gathers the
dramatic accounts of Nina Ferguson, a 46-year-old African American
resident of New Orleans, who claims she could not suppress a feeling of
nausea on getting off a military truck which took her to Houston, adding:
“Seeing this, I’d rather stayed at the Convention Center where I saw
dehydrated babies and several old people die without anyone looking after
them”. <br><br>
Another New Orleans resident, Rosanne Asuen, who suffers from diabetes
and obesity, had to be reanimated by a volunteer nurse who was as
desperate to get out of there as she was. <br><br>
Evelyn Sander, a 23 years old mother, told the press how she wiped the
sweat off Issaiah, her one-month-old baby’s forehead, with symptoms of
dehydration and flies all over him. <br><br>
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in a
communiqué made public yesterday, Saturday, expressed its concern over
the situation of children in the affected areas. According to UNICEF, one
third to one fourth of the one million two hundred thousand people left
helpless in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are children. <br><br>
A spokesperson for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) headquartered in
Atlanta told EFE that the stagnant waters create the ideal conditions for
the spread of the Nile virus and for outbreaks of hepatitis A and E. Coli
bacteria, a potentially deadly pathogen which can cause diarrhea and
kidney failure, among other complications. <br><br>
An AFP cable dated in Houston yesterday reports that Texas offered to
take in the thousands of people who had been displaced, but that hotels
in Houston begin to experience water shortages and that the ill must wait
long to receive medical care. Steven Glonsky, a doctor with the Methodist
Hospital in the city, who spent thirteen hours attending to dehydrated
and traumatized survivors who suffer from chronic illness such as
diabetes and hypertension, stated that this is an unprecedented crisis in
US history. <br><br>
US Senate republican leader Bill Frist, presently in New Orleans,
admitted that “doctors and nurses are doing a great job, but the
distribution of medical assistance continues to be a serious problem” and
“scores of people die every day”. <br><br>
According to the Boston Globe, Louisiana and Mississippi are facing the
worst public health care disaster the nation has known in decades.
<br><br>
The newspaper published declarations from Dr. Marshall Bouldin, Director
for Diabetes and Metabolism at the University’s Medical Center in
Jackson, Mississippi, who assistance: “We’re seeing things that we
haven’t seen in many years: cholera, typhoid fever, tetanus, malaria. We
hadn’t seen such conditions in 50 years. People are crammed together and
wander around surrounded by excrement”. <br><br>
There is an endless list of health problems reported by virtually all the
press and the specialized health care institutions.<br><br>
Our doctors’ backpacks contain precisely those resources needed to
address in the field problems relating to dehydration, high blood
pressure, diabetes Mellitus and infections in all parts of the body
—lungs, bones, skin, ears, urinary tract, reproductive system— as they
arise. They also carry medicine to suppress vomiting; painkillers and
drugs to lower fever; medication for the immediate treatment of heart
conditions, for allergies of any kind; for treating bronchial asthma and
other similar complications, about forty products of proven efficiency in
emergencies such as this one. <br><br>
These professionals carry two backpacks containing these products; each
backpack weighs 12 kilograms. Actually, this was determined when all of
the backpacks were procured, since although they are quite large, only
half of the supplies would fit in; it was then necessary to give each
doctor two backpacks, and the small briefcase which carries diagnostic
kits. These doctors have much clinical experience, this is one of their
most outstanding characteristic, as they are used to offering their
services in places where there isn’t even one X-ray machine, ultrasound
equipment or instruments for analyzing fecal samples, blood, etc. With
the increase in the number of doctors, the medications weigh a total of
36 tons. The initial figure was smaller. <br><br>
Cuba has the moral authority to express its opinion on this matter and to
make this offer. Today, it is the country with the highest number of
doctors per capita in the world, and no other country cooperates with
other nations in the field of healthcare as extensively as it does.
<br><br>
Of over 130 thousand healthcare professionals with a university
education, 25,845 today serve in international missions in 66 different
countries. They offer medical services to 85,154,748 people; 34,700,000
in Latin America and the Caribbean and 50,400,000 in Africa and Asia. Of
these, 17,651 are doctors, 3,069 are dentists and 3,117 are healthcare
technicians who work in optic services and other areas. <br><br>
Today, more than 12 thousand young people from around the world, chiefly
from Latin America and the Caribbean, are studying medicine in Cuba
completely free of charge, and their numbers will continue to grow
rapidly. Scores of young people from the United States study in the Latin
American School of Medicine, whose doors have been opened, since the
institution’s inception, to students from that country. <br><br>
Today, I received a moving letter from graduates from that Center, which
reads:<br><br>
<br><br>
“Your Excellency Commander Fidel Castro Ruz;<br><br>
<br><br>
“Dear Commander in Chief:<br><br>
<br><br>
“We have followed the horrific events that have unfolded in New Orleans
resulting from the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina and listened
to your statement on the afternoon Round Table program and we, Hondurans
and other graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM),
are moved by the situation our brothers in the United States are
enduring. Thus, as victims of a natural disaster (hurricane Mitch)
ourselves, we want to express our solidarity with the American people at
this tragic hour and join the doctors you have offered to send to
this sister nation in response to this critical situation. You can be
confident that we are ‘doctors willing to go where we are most
needed’.<br><br>
“We walk down the path you dream of. <br><br>
“With infinite love and eternal gratitude,<br><br>
<br><br>
“The first graduates from ELAM”. <br><br>
<br><br>
This letter is signed by 85 young, recent graduates from the Latin
American School of Medicine, who tell us the signatures and names are
those of comrades currently in Havana, and that there are more comrades
willing to join the mission but who are overseas on vacation. <br><br>
When our first war of independence broke out in 1868, a group of
Americans joined the ranks of Cuba’s independence forces. One of them, a
very young man, stood out for his exceptional courage and wrote pages of
admirable heroism in Cuba’s history. It was Henry Reeve. His
unforgettable name is forever etched in the heart of our people, and next
to that of Lincoln and other illustrious Americans it is carved on the
pillars of the Plaza built in the days of the struggle for the return of
little Elián González, when the noble people of the United States played
a decisive role so that justice would finally be done. <br><br>
Henry Reeve, almost crippled by the wounds sustained in the course of 7
years of war, fell in combat on August 4, 1876, near Yaguaramas, today
the province of Cienfuegos. <br><br>
I propose that this force of Cuban doctors who have volunteered to help
save the lives of Americans bear the glorious name of “Henry Reeve”.
<br><br>
These doctors, I mean you, could already be there, offering their
services. 48 hours have passed and we have not received any response to
our reiterated offer. We shall patiently await a reply, for as many days
as necessary. In the meantime, our doctors shall use the time to take
intensive epidemiology courses and improving their English. If,
ultimately, we do not receive any reply or our cooperation —your
cooperation— is not needed, we shall not be demoralized, not you, not us,
not any Cuban. On the contrary, we shall feel satisfied for having
complied with our duty and extremely happy knowing that no other
American, of the many that suffered the painful and perfidious scourge of
hurricane Katrina, shall perish from lack of medical care, if that were
the reason our doctors were not there. <br><br>
The “Henry Reeve” Brigade has been created, and whatever tasks you
undertake in any part of the world or our own homeland, you shall always
bear the glorious distinction of having responded to the call to
assistance our brothers and sisters in the United States, and that
nation’s humblest children especially, with courage and dignity.
<br><br>
Let’s go forward, generous defenders of health and of life, winners over
pain and death itself!<br><br>
Thank you. <br>
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