Castrocare: Freezing to death in Havana

Castrocare: Freezing to death in Havana

The Associated Press reported: "26 patients at Cuba's largest hospital
for the mentally ill died this week during a cold snap, the government
said Friday."

As John Stossel pointed out: "Michael Moore, in his movie Sicko, lauds
Cuban health care. Everyone gets free treatment. Too bad Americans have
to pay and suffer. Of course, many socialist systems offer free
treatment. I wonder if it's worth what they pay for it."

As the Associated Press report noted: "Communist Cuba provides free
health care to all its citizens but, though the quality of its medical
system is celebrated in leftist circles around Latin America, it is also
plagued by shortages. Patients are expected to bring their own sheets
and towels and sometimes their own food during hospital stays."

But we are glossing over the real icky part of this: The state decides
who is mentally ill. The Soviets and just about every other totalitarian
government decided that political opponents are mentally ill.

The Associated Press report in full:

HAVANA — Twenty-six patients at Cuba's largest hospital for the mentally
ill died this week during a cold snap, the government said Friday.

Human rights leaders cited negligence and a lack of resources as factors
in the deaths, and the Health Ministry launched an investigation that it
said could lead to criminal proceedings.

A Health Ministry communique read on state television blamed "prolonged
low temperatures that fell to 38 degrees Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) in
Boyeros," the neighborhood where Havana's Psychiatric Hospital is located.

It said most of the deaths were from natural causes such as old age,
respiratory infections and complications from chronic diseases including
cancer and cardiovascular problems.

The statement came in response to reports from the independent Cuban
Commission on Human Rights that at least 24 mental patients died of
hypothermia this week, and that the hospital did not do enough to
protect them from the cold because of problems such as faulty windows.

Commission head Elizardo Sanchez said that so many patients dying of
hypothermia was "absurd in a tropical country" and claimed the deaths
could have been prevented if the government had granted long-standing
requests from international aid groups to tour Cuba's medical
facilities, including the capital's 2,500-bed mental hospital.

Such cold weather is unusual in sun-drenched Cuba: Temperatures in and
around Havana rarely drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 Celsius), even
in January, the country's coldest month, according to the Meteorological
Institute. Still, the Health Ministry said a commission created to
investigate the deaths has already identified various deficiencies at
the hospital.

Communist Cuba provides free health care to all its citizens but, though
the quality of its medical system is celebrated in leftist circles
around Latin America, it is also plagued by shortages. Patients are
expected to bring their own sheets and towels and sometimes their own
food during hospital stays.

The government blames the shortages on the U.S. trade embargo, though
the embargo does not prevent the direct sale of medicine or medical
supplies to the island.

Castrocare: Freezing to death in Havana « Don Surber (18 January 2010)
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/7785