A Cuban woman named Dayami Melian shared a video on Facebook exposing the filthy conditions at the emergency room of the Leopoldito Martínez Rodríguez General Teaching Hospital in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque province.
In the 36-second video, Melian reveals a bathroom in the emergency area completely flooded with urine, which was spilling into the corridor outside the medical facility.
"These images show a bathroom in the ER of the general hospital in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba. You couldn't enter because what you see in the images is urine, urine flowing out the door," the author wrote alongside the video.
The hallway floor appears wet and run-down, with walls covered in green tiles stained with moisture, and hospital stretchers visible in the background.
Personal Agony Amidst Deteriorating Conditions
What makes Melian's account particularly heart-wrenching is the personal story accompanying it. She recounts experiencing this ordeal while caring for her ailing father.
"I went through this with my father before taking him home so he could pass away peacefully with his family," she noted, emphasizing her decision to remove her father from the hospital rather than leave him in such dire circumstances.
The post garnered over 11,380 views, 387 reactions, and 125 comments, and concluded with a direct condemnation of the system: "Down with the disgusting communism that is killing an entire nation."
Recurring Public Complaints
This is not the first time this hospital has faced public criticism. In September 2024, another Cuban shared images of the same facility showing a bathroom clogged with feces, overcrowded wards lacking privacy, and shortages of medications and supplies.
That same year, Mayabeque's health directorate publicly acknowledged severe shortcomings: a lack of specialists in anesthesiology, surgery, and orthopedics, an ICU with only five beds, an inadequate generator for all equipment, and non-functional medical devices like the CT scanner, colonoscope, and laparoscope.
Widespread Health System Failures
Melian’s report is part of a documented and ongoing issue. Recently, similar conditions were reported at the Lenin Hospital in Holguín—featuring bathrooms without water, broken toilets, and infestations of bedbugs and cockroaches—and in the ER of the Orlando Pantoja Tamayo Hospital in Contramaestre, with flooded floors and rusty pipes.
In August, black water was reported at the entrance of Camagüey's Pediatric Hospital, and sewage leaks appeared in the Gynecology ER at Santiago de Cuba's Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital earlier this year.
The decline worsens amid a prolonged energy crisis. The UN warned this month that extended blackouts in Cuba endanger the vaccination of around 70,000 children and the operation of incubators and ventilators nationwide.
A survey cited by Infobae indicated that 82% of Cubans rated the condition of hospitals and health centers as poor in 2026, a figure starkly contrasting with the official narrative portraying the Cuban healthcare system as a model of excellence.
"It's too much what people in Cuba are enduring, and still there are those who defend this mess," Melian concluded in her post.
Understanding Cuba's Healthcare Crisis
What were the conditions like at the hospital in Mayabeque?
The hospital was reported to have severe sanitation issues, including a bathroom flooded with urine that overflowed into the hallway, deteriorating infrastructure, and a lack of basic medical supplies and privacy for patients.
How did Dayami Melian respond to the hospital conditions?
Dayami Melian decided to take her terminally ill father home to spend his final days peacefully with his family, rather than leaving him in the deplorable conditions of the hospital.
Are these issues unique to the Mayabeque hospital?
No, similar problems have been reported in other hospitals across Cuba, including those in Holguín, Contramaestre, and Santiago de Cuba, highlighting a widespread healthcare crisis.