translated from Spanish: Crisis death sentence for children in hospital in Venezuela

Gilberto placed his son Erick’s toys on a white coffin. Also letters from friends and the facemask he used while waiting for a transplant that never came for him and other children who died of cancer in a Venezuelan hospital. Erick, 11, stopped fighting on Sunday May 26 against a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that was diagnosed in February. In the same month, his companions Giovanny Figuera, Robert Redondo and Yeiderberth Requena lost the battle. ” He needed the marrow transplant (bone), and the disease was advancing more every day, “says AFP Gilberto Alhad, 38 years, father of Erick, who also suffered from a very small immunodeficiency. A relapse by that illness took him in January to the children’s Hospital J. M. of rivers (public), in Caracas, where he was diagnosed with cancer and was admitted in the hope of being transplanted in Italy, as part of an agreement between that country and the state oil company PDVSA SUS Written in 2010. ” We have a government that helps everyone, but the children what? “laments Gilberto, with the tears contained in the wake he officiated in his house of Frisados blocks, in the populous neighborhood of Petare (east). A debt to the Italian government of 10.7 million euros has paralyzed the program since 2018. President Nicolás Maduro denounces that, although transfers have been made to give continuity, the resources were blocked by a Portuguese bank following the Financial sanctions of the United States, bent on taking it out of power. But the opposition led by Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim agent for half a hundred countries, argues that the initiative has already failed since 2016 for “lack of inputs and bureaucratic obstacles.” “We can all pass” 
While Maduro and Guaidó accuse each other of the deaths, Erick’s father, skinny and with the inflamed face of so much weeping, says “Do not look guilty where there are not.” But we must not be ignorant, knowing that they could have the chance to get the aid, ‘ he remarks. Although a bricklayer, Gilberto had to learn how to fix fingernails to survive the worst crisis in Venezuela’s recent history, with a destruction of half the economy during the maturing government, including the vital oil production. The family depends on a box of food delivered by the government each month and other subsidies, but there is no money to reach inflation of 130,060% in 2018, according to official figures, and that the IMF projects at 10 million% for 2019.26 other children need transplants in the J . M. Of the rivers, so that every death would add in terror to their families. Siolis Alvarez cannot help thinking that the next victim is Alejandro, his nine-year-old son. The seguidilla of deaths in that health center is nervous to the child, sick with acute lymphocytic leukemia. “We can all have the same thing. One lives with fear on top, “the AFP tells the 39-year-old woman, who tries to calm the child. Looking for better attention, in 2018 they moved from Falcón State (west) to Caracas, but they found a hospital without supplies, with several unused areas and closed bathrooms. In the midst of a shortage of 85% of medicines, according to the Pharmaceutical Guild, Siolis gets his son’s chemotherapy through oenegés, given the inability to pay the 800 dollars it costs to bring her from neighboring Colombia. According to the United Nations, about a quarter Of the Venezuelan population needs urgent humanitarian aid. ” Others are going to die. ” 
The deaths of children not only devastate families. Adriana Hillside would not want to return to the hospital where she has been a nurse for five years. ” Seeing that kind of thing breaks you, it marks you, “confesses the 30-year-old woman, who says that at the medical center sometimes there is not even soap in the hands. Gilberto placed his son Erick’s toys on a white coffin. Also letters from friends and the facemask he used while waiting for a transplant that never came for him and other children who died of cancer in a Venezuelan hospital. Erick, 11, stopped fighting on Sunday May 26 against a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that was diagnosed in February. In the same month, his companions Giovanny Figuera, Robert Redondo and Yeiderberth Requena lost the battle. ” He needed the marrow transplant (bone), and the disease was advancing more every day, “says AFP Gilberto Alhad, 38 years, father of Erick, who also suffered from a very small immunodeficiency. A relapse by that illness took him in January to the children’s Hospital J. M. of rivers (public), in Caracas, where he was diagnosed with cancer and was admitted in the hope of being transplanted in Italy, as part of an agreement between that country and the state oil company PDVSA SUS Written in 2010. ” We have a government that helps everyone, but the children what? “laments Gilberto, with the tears contained in the wake he officiated in his house of Frisados blocks, in the populous neighborhood of Petare (east). A debt to the Italian government of 10.7 million euros has paralyzed the program since 2018. President Nicolás Maduro denounces that, although transfers have been made to give continuity, the resources were blocked by a Portuguese bank following the Financial sanctions of the United States, bent on taking it out of power. But the opposition led by Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim agent for half a hundred countries, argues that the initiative has already failed since 2016 for “lack of inputs and bureaucratic obstacles.” We can all pass ” 
While Maduro and Guaidó accuse each other of the deaths, Erick’s father, skinny and with the inflamed face of so much weeping, says “Do not look guilty where there are not.” But we must not be ignorant, knowing that they could have the chance to get the aid, ‘ he remarks. Although a bricklayer, Gilberto had to learn how to fix fingernails to survive the worst crisis in Venezuela’s recent history, with a destruction of half the economy during the maturing government, including the vital oil production. The family depends on a box of food delivered by the government each month and other subsidies, but there is no money to reach inflation of 130,060% in 2018, according to official figures, and that the IMF projects at 10 million% for 2019.26 other children need transplants in the J . M. Of the rivers, so that every death would add in terror to their families. Siolis Alvarez cannot help thinking that the next victim is Alejandro, his nine-year-old son. The seguidilla of deaths in that health center is nervous to the child, sick with acute lymphocytic leukemia. “We can all have the same thing. One lives with fear on top, “the AFP tells the 39-year-old woman, who tries to calm the child. Looking for better attention, in 2018 they moved from Falcón State (west) to Caracas, but they found a hospital without supplies, with several unused areas and closed bathrooms. In the midst of a shortage of 85% of medicines, according to the Pharmaceutical Guild, Siolis gets his son’s chemotherapy through oenegés, given the inability to pay the 800 dollars it costs to bring her from neighboring Colombia. According to the United Nations, about a quarter Of the Venezuelan population needs urgent humanitarian aid. ” There are days when it makes you want to run and never come back again, “he drops through tears. But it returns despite the perennial lack of inputs and scarce food that staff can offer patients. ” There are others who are going to die. They are not the last, “says nurse Marta Vasquez, aged 33. Surrounded by white flowers, Erick’s body remained in the living room of his house for almost four days. After buying a parcel in the main cemetery of Guarenas, 27 kilometres from Petare, the former owner asked the father more money to give it to him. Put ice on it so you don’t rot, “he told the sore parents, delaying the burial one day,” said Gilberto. They are things that bankrupt you, “whispers the man, who had to go to donations to pay the grave.” 



Original source in Spanish