The Cuban Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is a scientific organisation that brings together more than 2,000 professionals of various profiles associated with rehabilitation, physical therapy, defectology, speech therapy, phoniatrics, among others.

In line with the principle of accessibility of health services, our professionals are located in distant mountains where hundreds of patients go, in centres of different levels of care in all Cuban municipalities, including the Rehabilitation Hospital «Julio Díaz González», a National Reference institution in the treatment of children and adults.

Our discipline also stands out for the training of specialists for Cuba and more than twenty other countries, and the results in the care of the most complex disabilities are recognised in more than a few nations.

In the midst of our intense daily struggle, where the sacrifice and dedication of the professionals who overcome shortages and difficulties prevails, we have observed with indignation the attitude, foreign to the principles in which we were trained, of a Cuban medical graduate, specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who currently resides in Colombia.

This former colleague has systematically and publicly violated the most elementary principles of behaviour of a true health professional. From his profile on digital social networks, he has lied, coerced, threatened and defamed Cuban doctors and institutions linked to the diagnosis and treatment of the 10-year-old boy who was transferred to a hospital in South Florida on 12 March. His repeated publications have maintained a line of aggression and lies, together with the disqualification of those of us who, at the time, were his colleagues in his profession.

Our scientific society firmly rejects this attitude and distances itself from positions of this offensive and shameful nature. The attitude of this former health professional, although it outrages us, does not surprise us. Between August and September 2008, he participated in a Neurodevelopmental event in Cali, Colombia. Despite having been invited and his expenses covered by the organisers, once there he threatened and coerced the organisers both verbally and physically, demanding an unagreed fee for his participation. In addition, he falsified a curriculum vitae in order to claim recognition for a career that he did not possess.

Among other lies, he included preparation courses in South Korea, England and the United States, countries he never visited and knowledge he never acquired. These were the achievements of other professionals in our society, which he deceptively claimed and which he accredited with false documents. His shameful behaviour was denounced by the organisers of the event, who provided documentary evidence, as well as recordings of his attitude and behaviour. These serious violations led to his disqualification from practising his profession in 2009.

The ethical dilemmas that a doctor faces in his or her work are dissimilar, but a doctor does not lie, manipulate, hurt or humiliate; he or she always puts solidarity, altruism, the desire to overcome illness and the difficulties that may arise above all else, for the good of the patient, family and colleagues.

A Cuban doctor cares and protects. A Cuban doctor who is a rehabilitator is in solidarity with and committed to the integral wellbeing of people, whatever their origin, ethnicity, social position, their condition and that of their family environment. A Cuban doctor, wherever he or she may be, also shows profound respect for other specialists.

Our Scientific Society repudiates the deplorable conduct of this practitioner of Cuban origin and conveys its concern to the true and recognised professionals of physical medicine and rehabilitation in that sister country, with many of whom we maintain excellent and systematic links. These ties have been strengthened by the training in Cuba of some twenty Colombians as Rehabilitation Specialists, a figure that has risen to 1029 medical graduates and 1319 who are currently studying for a degree or specialisation.

The guild we represent will never share the aggression against the Cuban health system, nor the work we do every day. Our work, in the midst of enormous shortages, of collective and individual sacrifices, speaks for itself. The legacy of Cuban medicine will always be stronger than the vile attacks of anodynes.

Presidency of the Governing Board of the Cuban Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

1 April 2025