CAMAGÜEY.- I have read that aging begins at 20 calendars; also, that 20 years is nothing, and thus a series of truths and puzzles related to human beings. However, when a visit to the Cardiovascular Care Center of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech University Hospital, two decades after it was founded, you realize that time does matter and that far from aging the site offers life and something of utmost importance: there they do not stop dreaming.
Dr. Yunior Rodríguez López, specialist in Cardiology and Master in Medical Emergency, is in charge of the leadership of this institution, very similar to the myocardium - myocardium, muscle and cardio, heart - because it does not stop "pumping" for an instant, always in favor of life.
Since its inauguration, Dr. Rodríguez López announced, they had a coronary care intensive therapy room, with six beds then, now 11; the intermediate care, with 18 beds, and the rehabilitation; offered pacemaker implantation services - a small battery-operated device that senses when the heart is beating irregularly or very slowly, and is responsible for sending a signal to do so at the proper rhythm -, echocardiography or cardiac ultrasound, stress testing, or heart rate testing and the application of the Holter monitor - ambulatory electrocardiogram.
They dreamed of hemodynamics to perform coronary angiography and angioplasties, procedures for which Camagüey´s patients are referred to the Ernesto Che Guevara cardiovascular center in Villa Clara.
"Did you dream or still dream?"
—We dream, we've never stopped doing it, only then it wasn't achieved. The study carried out by hemodynamics allows examining the inside of blood structures such as arteries, veins, venules, arterioles and capillaries. It is responsible for the exploration and treatment of diseases such as acute myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, heart valve diseases, just to mention a few.
Two decades after a desire shared by all the specialists of that moment and the current ones, it is still a pending subject, but one that they are sure they will conquer, since the sub-specialization by departments becomes an infinite purpose.
“At that time, cardiologists offered their services in each health area and the rest of the municipalities of the province. Today the community projection is different, five municipalities and the same number of Health areas are served, because in the rest there are specialists trained here, as well as those from the Amalia Simoni hospital, Ana Betancourt maternal and child hospital and Eduardo Agramonte Piña pediatric hospital. The process of improvement is also carried out, with the categorizations as specialists and professors”, assured Dr. Yunior.
ASPIRATIONS
The 17 specialists in Cardiology at the Center, its nursing and rehabilitation staff, all with a high scientific level, work to resemble more and more a tertiary-level health institution.
“We have indicators that give us prestige, added Dr. Yunior. Mortality from heart attack is below 12%; the cases sent to the Cardiovascular center of Villa Clara, and sometimes to that of Santiago de Cuba go with a precise diagnosis, in those places they recognize it and we appreciate their services in hemodynamics or cardiovascular surgery; while our third-year inmates study it at the William Soler cardiovascular center in Havana, because these two medical behaviors are lacking here.
“Another desire is the Accreditation process, the result of the application of a system of self-evaluation and external evaluation, which publicly recognizes that a medical specialty meets certain quality requirements. This has repercussions on the improvement of services and, consequently, on the sick. It must be held in the second week of December and is part of the celebrations for the Center's 20th anniversary”.
With healthy pride, Dr. Rodríguez López said he was convinced of the professionalism of those who work there with high human sensitivity and many desires to do.
Dr. Leandro Segura and Lic. Gladys Valero, in the arrhythmias and pacemaker consultation. Dr. Leandro Segura and Lic. Gladys Valero, in the arrhythmias and pacemaker consultation.
FROM BEFORE AND NOW
Many patients have benefited from the implantation of pacemakers from before, since it has been carried out in the “Manuel Ascunce” since 1978, then in the Radiology department; and others for rehabilitation services, close, but outside the hospital.
The graduate in nursing Gladys Valero Caballero continues to cling to her passion for this practice of placing the pacemaker, previously led by Professor José Ramírez Lana, now deceased, and one of the dreamers of yesteryear.
Today she is next to Dr. Leandro Segura Pujal, in the arrhythmia and pacemaker consultation. They are responsible for the more than 200 devices of this type implanted per year, although not the only ones, despite the difficulties they face on many occasions due to the lack of resources due to the blockade imposed by the United States of North America.
In the Rehabilitation Room there is a pleasant atmosphere, full of optimism, professionalism and gratitude. There we found 26-year-old Dr. Jorge Enrique Molina Montoya, from the Tula Aguilera polyclinic, who is recovering from a heart attack suffered three months ago. He attests to the individualized and highly specialized care he receives: "I rate the care of first world and with love."
Emiliano Parada Sánchez, 54, confirms what the doctor said and says he feels perfectly: "Because this here is wonderful."
Dr. Luis Deivis González Rodríguez, 28, a second-year resident of Cardiology, qualifies the Center as a school.
"I am proud of my teachers, of those who are and those who are no longer because wherever we go, people remember them, something very gratifying."
He commented that he also offers consultations with his "teachers" in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Sur, where "we are well received and remind us of those who assure that cardiologists and patients form a great family because when they come to us they stay forever and a special empathy is created ”.
From left to right, Lic. María Elena Olivera Zunzunegui supports Dr. Jorge E. Molina in his rehabilitation. On the right, Dr. Vivian Gil García, specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, does it with Emiliano.
DO NOT FORGET
The interviewees mentioned an important group of Professors, impossible to name all of them. They agreed not to forget Rafael León Díaz, Hugo Pedroso Rodríguez, Jorge Castellanos Vasconcellos, now deceased and cataloged as the foundations of Cardiology in Camagüey.
They also remembered José Ramírez Lana, who recently disappeared, and others who are active, such as Justo de Lara Abad, in internationalist collaboration, and the first thinker that this Center was possible, the one who gave the idea and did not give up the effort until it was achieved.
Professors Rafael León de la Torre, Carlos Oliva Céspedes (from “Eduardo Agramonte Piña”), Eduardo Pedroso Filiberto (retired), and many others also qualified as paradigms of the specialty.
Nor should we forget the support of the authorities of the province a little more than 20 years ago to achieve this dream, nor that 1,200,000 pesos were used, and around 120,000 dollars in a work that has enabled the attention of more than 30 000 patients, including many from Ciego de Ávila and Las Tunas.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez