Cuban Prosecutor asks for 12 Years Imprisonment for the Nurse who Vaccinated the Girl Paloma Dominguez

Little Paloma Domínguez Caballero, who died in October 2019, after having been vaccinated in Havana.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 18 October 2020 – Yaima Caballero, mother of the girl Paloma Domínguez, announced that the trial of the nurse who vaccinated her daughter was held on Friday. After the vaccination the little girl, only 1 year old, died on October 9, 2019.

“They have already tried the nurse who killed Paloma; she acknowledged that she did everything wrong, although she hardly said she was sorry, but that she was very sorry because she had opted for the right to remain silent if she wished…,” Caballero posted on her Instagram account.

“The prosecutor is asking for a 12-year sentence of deprivation of liberty, for murder and injury,” the mother said, reporting that she did not have all the details of the trial, although she went on to say that the defendant’s representative did not agree with the prosecutor’s request.

“Her lawyer appealed, because she says five to seven years would be correct, because she’s the best nurse in the world. We have to wait six business days to see what they say, this nightmare is not over,” she said. “Do you have any idea, how they changed laws, 12 years ago?” the mother questioned at the conclusion of her message on the social network.

The trial was scheduled to start on last August 14, but was postponed by Havana’s health situation following the reemergence of the new coronavirus. “I can’t go, you know if I go back they won’t let me out,” the little girl’s mother said to 14ymedio a month before that first date.

She explained that she would not be able to attend because she was not in Cuba, but in Mexico. “It’s all very complicated, what more could I want than to be there.” Caballero confirmed that the trial was attended by several of her friends, in addition to her parents, Paloma Dominguez’s grandparents, her brother and her paternal aunts.

At a meeting with health authorities before leaving Cuba, State Security, present at the meeting, warned the mother that she could go to prison if she persisted in making “unfounded accusations,” against Cuban Public Health. The situation led her to go into exile with her husband on Mexican territory.

Yaima Caballero’s life turned around a year ago when she took her daughter to get her PRS vaccine (MMR, against mumps, rubella and measles) at Polyclinic Enrique Betancourt Neninger, in Alamar, Havana. A few days later, the little girl passed away.

“They killed my daughter,” was her complaint on social media from the first moment, and then she also made public her disagreement with the results of the investigation that was released by the Ministry of Public Health a month after Paloma’s death, and which pointed to a “bad handling” of the vaccine.

According to the health authorities, the severe reaction presented by the little one was caused by “violations of the standards established for vaccination” and “negligence during the process of conservation, preparation, handling and exposure of the syringe used.”

According to those results of the investigation, the nurse who vaccinated Paloma was punished with a firing from the National Health System, along with disqualification from the practice of the profession and the criminal investigation process.

Since then, Caballero has waged a personal battle to thoroughly investigate what happened, so that it might not happen again. Although she never complained about the medical care received by her daughter, on the contrary, she thanked the doctors, but soon came the retaliation against her for raising her voice.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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