Neglecting Medical Care of Sick Children

Music entertainer Shaggy, patrons, and staff at the hospital are smiling in a photo with a sick child who will benefit greatly from the machine purchased with funds from the Shaggy and Friends Charity performance. At the Bustamante Children’s Hospital, photo ops are common with smiling children, nurses, and patrons demonstrating an environment of happiness. Yet, on a normal day when the photographers and limelight are nowhere to be seen, the night staff wakes up sick children in the wee hours of the morning at 4:00 AM for their bath so that the staff will not have to delay their departure promptly at 6:00 AM at the end of their shift. Those children whose parents are regularly at the children’s hospital do not have to worry since they will not be awoken for a bath as their parents are expected to do this job on their visit. After their early bath, children whose parents cannot visit them regularly must take care not to wet or mess up themselves or else they will have to remain in their soiled attire since no health staff will make any effort to change them regardless of their loud, monotonous crying. There was a case where a little girl cried out one night. “I’m so cold……can I have a blanket?” A visiting parent who heard the child and saw her shivering made a plea to one of the nurses for a blanket. That parent had decided to spend all night at the hospital with her child since throughout her son’s hospital stay, she had witnessed the neglect of innocent, sick children. “We do not provide blankets to patients”, the nurse responded abruptly and coldly. The parent made further pleas but to no avail. So, she sought for and found a blanket on a cart which she used to cover the freezing sick child. Upon realizing what the parent did, the nurse quickly retrieved the blanket off the child’s body insisting that the parent was violating the policy of the hospital. So, the caring parent removed the child’s sheet from the mattress and used it instead to cover the child. The Bustamante Children’s Hospital has improved over the years. Yet, these incidents along with placing doctors and other medical practitioners from Cuba to care for sick children but are unable to clearly communicate with the parents demonstrate that the public hospital has a very long way to go. The only English word one mother could understand in response to her question to a Cuban doctor was the word, "baby" so he was unable to respond to the mother's concerns. Undivided attention is expected for all sick children regardless of whether their parents can only afford to use the services of a public hospital and all nursing staff should be empathetic to each situation.