The following day, a Monday, Dr. Roth, Dr. DeVries, Dr. Matt Clark, a pediatric anesthesiologist from Salt Lake City, and Linda Lambert, a certified registered nurse anesthesiologist, also from Salt Lake City, saw 30 patients and their families and scheduled the surgeries that would take place over the next four days. Dr. Roth would perform complicated hypospadias, reconstructive surgeries to correct congenital anomalies of the penis. We were warmly welcomed by physicians and hospital staff, and by the government. They recognize the limitations they have, so they were very pleased to have us visit. They are about 20 years behind us.
Equipment is antiquated, and medications are very limited.
The access to medical care is slow. The previous surgeries performed in Havana had had complications, and the expertise for the July operations was simply not there. They do not have these, of course. In fact, they have very little. It's difficult to even compare their surgical suites with what you would find in the Texas Medical Center.