Her uncle, a 15-year-old schizophrenic teenager, threw her into the void during an attack
14ymedio, Havana, 4 March 2025 — The official press on Tuesday gave its version of the events that led to the admission to the Sancti Spíritus pediatric hospital of an 11-month-old baby thrown from a fourth floor by a relative. The child, from the municipality of Jatibonico, arrived with minor injuries considering the height from which she fell, and her discharge from the hospital is imminent.
In an interview conducted by Radio Sancti Spíritus and reproduced by Cubadebate, the intensive care physician who treated the girl, Fran Felipe Martín, said he was “impressed” after the “rescue” of the girl last Friday, because she did not have significant injuries, but “just a scratch on the neck.” “The entire critical care commission was activated… but we were informed that there was no serious injury. Nevertheless, she was admitted,” he added.
There is no word on the person responsible for the girl’s fall. According to social media and solidarity groups in Jatibonico who reported the incident, it was her uncle, a 15-year-old teenager, who threw Nathaly – she is identified by that name by several profiles – out of the window of his building during an attack. He was also admitted to the same hospital, in the mental health ward.
With the current shortage of medicines in Cuba, these types of episodes are not rare.
Given the current shortage of medicines in Cuba and the country’s overall crisis, these types of episodes caused by neurological decompensation are not uncommon.
After several tests, including X-rays and ultrasounds, “nothing was found,” not even fractures or damage to the skull. According to Martin, the girl is eating and behaving normally. “There was nothing wrong with her, but we had never seen anything like this: that an 11-month-old child could fall from a fourth floor and not have any injuries seemed impossible to us.”
“It is always said that a child is not a small adult and, although children can withstand certain traumas, the fact that this baby did not suffer serious injuries after such a shocking fall is something that we have really never seen before in our experience,” he said.
Although the headlines use the word “thrown” to describe what happened to the baby, the Radio Sancti Spíritus journalist constantly questions whether she was “really” thrown. “We have had many accidents,” said the doctor, always from a second or third floor, and older, but he also did not confirm the intentionality of the act. “We have never seen that.”
“The news went viral on social media,” said Radio Sancti Spíritus. “It shocked public opinion.” The station – and occasionally the local newspaper Escambray – pays attention to the work of doctors in the province and publishes reports of equally “miraculous” stories due to the talent of Cuban health workers.
Titles such as From Anguish to Hope or The Story of Jorgito, a Child Who Survived Severe Pneumonia –always with the warning of “sensitive images of the surgical intervention”– are examples of this kind of subgenre that has been developing for months in the official media.
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