Pedro Daniel Bernad had to undergo two operations in Santa Clara due to an intestinal obstruction while pneumonia complicated his condition.
14ymedio, Havana, October 21, 2025 — The health of Spaniard Pedro Daniel Bernad, visiting Cuba, is critical. The tourist, originally from Épila, a small town in Zaragoza, arrived on the island on October 3 for what he thought would be a dream vacation, but a week later, he had to be admitted to the Arnaldo Milián Castro Hospital in Santa Clara due to an intestinal obstruction.
His family has told several Spanish media outlets about his medical situation. As if that weren’t enough, pneumonia complicated his recovery, and he remains in the Intensive Care Unit of the Santa Clara hospital.
Bernad’s sister and brother-in-law, Daniel Mosteo, traveled to the island to be near him, and the situation they have encountered in Cuba is terrifying. “It’s a country with very little health infrastructure,” the relatives told the Spanish newspaper La Razón .
“When you see the material and hygienic conditions of the hospital, your heart skips a beat,” Mosteo told the same outlet. The shortage of drugs is so acute that family members have had to obtain antibiotics for Bernad through the Spanish consulate, but they only have enough for this Tuesday of the “seven days he needs to be given them.”
Given the deplorable situation at the hospital, Mosteo and his wife are trying to repatriate the 51-year-old man, but their efforts with the insurance company he hired for the trip and the Spanish consulate have been unsuccessful.
The insurer argued that repatriation in a “medicalized plane,” which costs 150,000 euros ($174,201), “is limited to certain countries.” Furthermore, Mosteo explained to La Razón, the Spanish embassy specified that official return “is only considered in situations of collective emergency.”
Bernad’s brother-in-law expressed his frustration with the system. “I don’t understand why it isn’t complementary for extremely serious situations. Why do we pay taxes if it doesn’t come back to you when you need it most? This is an extremely serious situation; it’s not a headache you get abroad, and you don’t receive support from your government,” he stressed.
The Épila City Council has joined the efforts to repatriate Bernad . In a brief statement, the organization states that it is taking “every possible step to help improve the situation and achieve his return as soon as possible.”
Family members fear it may be too late, but they continue to try to move “heaven and earth” to get the Spaniard back to Zaragoza, El Heraldo de Aragón reported.
Bernad’s case is not an isolated one. Last April, Canadians Christian Maurais and Caroline Tétrault had a similar experience when she underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis at the same Santa Clara hospital.
“There was no light, no basic conditions. It looked like a horror movie, but the doctors performed miracles with what they had,” Maurais told the Quebec press.
Their testimony, like Bernad’s, coincides with the lack of antibiotics, adequate nutrition, and basic resources. They even had to buy medicine and food on the black market, facing the risk of illegal currency exchange.
In March, another incident shocked the international community when Syrian-Canadian citizen Faraj Allah Jarjour died while on vacation in Cuba, and his family received the wrong body back. The Cuban government apologized, but the case remains unsolved.
Amid the health crisis experienced by visitors, the Ministry of Tourism highlighted this Monday that the World Travel Awards have awarded Cuba the prize for Best Cultural Destination in the Caribbean for the fifth consecutive time.
The official media outlet Adelante praised the award, which includes hotels, tourist accommodations, attractions, and airlines. “They’re considered the Oscars of the tourism industry,” it reaffirmed, without referring to the disastrous tourism figures or the increasingly frequent and harsh complaints from international visitors.
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