CAMAGÜEY.- Giving the possibility of walking to a girl who was denied it by a congenital malformation has been one of the greatest satisfactions that Elvin Zamora Mustelier remembers from his work.

“The girl has a total absence of a femur. From the Frank País hospital, in Havana, where she was involved, although she resides here, she was sent to Camagüey because there they did not have the materials to make her prosthesis; Us neither".

But as it is done almost daily in the Provincial Laboratory of Technical Orthopedics, he gave free rein to his imagination and knowledge and to create!

"We had to rebuild the components of the foot, the knee joint, the socket ... everything was made new because we did not have any of that size."

-How much did this job demand of you?

"Imagine, it's a unique case." You have to apply the experience of all your years to solve it. And it will be necessary to follow it, renew it, because the girl is growing. Here we innovate every day, which is not written how much we do.

-Satisfied?

"Very happy to see the parents laughing, the girl playing." When she tried it on, she wanted to go for a walk right away and the mother tells her that she doesn't want to take it off.

Statistically

Thanks to the efforts of many others like Elvin, it is not contradictory that out of a plan of 110 orthopedic prostheses in 2020, 136 were made, despite an economic, commercial and financial blockade that the United States imposes on the nation and each year it is stronger.

Referring to the subject, Jorge Guerra Ruiz, director of the Provincial Laboratory of Technical Orthopedics, explained how the lack of raw materials such as high and low density thermoplastic for the manufacture of ferrules and corsets for the correction of upper limbs, and of leather and toes for footwear. The latter are recovered, straightened and reused.

According to the Report on the need to lift the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba, only during 2019 and 2020 the Importing and Exporting Company of Medical Products contacted the seven companies that are part of its Portfolio of Suppliers.

Five of these did not respond when asked to update documentation to continue business relationships. Only Eli Lilly and Bayer issued a response, the first refusing to continue as a supplier and the second to inform that it should request a new OFAC license for the new contracts.