“It was after three in the morning, she told me that she was hungry so I gave her a consommé that I had in the fridge, my sister could not stand up, she was in a lot of pain and at 5:15 in the morning she died in my arms. arms,” Ciro José León said, his eyes brimming with tears. Thus he recalled the last minutes of her sister Carmen Guillermina León’s life, who died after being rouletteted by six hospitals in Caracas and unable to be treated.
The story that culminated in the death of Carmen Guillermina León began a long time ago when she was diagnosed with fibromatosis. Over the years it became more complicated, he suffered from abdominal inflammation, and from legs, pelvic and abdominal pain, he suffered so much that he had tests, but he needed a tomography that could not be done because we did not have the resources, says León.
In October of last year, Carmen’s health worsened, she got tired and her feet hurt a lot, the doctors said it could be an internal fluid leak, so it was imperative to perform the necessary scans and tests, so her brothers began to try to get financial aid, but they did not raise enough money.
Time passed and Carmen’s health continued to deteriorate, she became malnourished because she had lost her appetite, and last Monday the ordeal began. She “she was very ill, with breathing problems, so we decided to take her to a hospital.”
Ciro remembers that they boarded a taxi that took them to the Vargas hospital, a center where they arrived with a letter addressed to the director, it did not help them at all, there they were notified that they could not receive it because they were collapsed.
They went to the Miguel Pérez Carreño hospital, where the doctors discussed the case, nobody wanted to see her, despite the fact that she had a history in that care center. Finally at 10 pm they were told that since she had respiratory problems and they did not have oxygen they could not receive her, so they went back to the street to look for a “hospital that had oxygen”.
They went to the José Gregorio Hernández de los Magallanes hospital in Catia, where they did not admit her either, so they decided to go to the Periferico hospital in Catia, where they were told that they did not have nursing staff.
But the situation worsened in that health center since in Pepo they saw that Carmen Guillermina had respiratory failure “and they wanted to treat the case as Covid and told us that they were not going to risk infecting their nursing staff” and they had to leave.
They arrived at the old Social Security headquarters on Sucre Avenue, currently a Popular Clinic where they could hardly speak to the security guards, and the answer was that “they are not treating patients.” They finally ended up at the Lídice Jesús Yerena hospital, and obtained the same answer.
They had already run out of money, all the trips were made by taxi, so they returned to Mr. León’s house, it was 3:30 in the morning and Carmen Guillermina arrived hungry at the apartment located on the 15th floor of the Guillermo building V in the Altagracia parish. At 11:30 the next day, the Cicpc removed her body.