Rocío’s vision restored: Cuban girl finds life-saving care in Spain
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In November 2025, Rocío Bustamante Riverón, a young girl from Cuba, travelled to Spain with her mother to receive treatment for a lymphangioma orbitary, a benign tumor in her eye.
Cuban doctors had offered no effective long-term solution for Rocío’s condition, which she had since she was eleven months old, and predicted she would lose her eye.
After years of receiving only palliative care, including eye drops and cold compresses, Rocío’s mother appealed to social media and independent media for help. Dr. Lucio Enríquez Nodarse, a Cuban doctor exiled in Spain, assisted Rocío and her mother in getting to Madrid, where the Fundación Jiménez Díaz hospital provided specialized intravenous treatment. By May 2026, a follow-up MRI confirmed that Rocío was completely healthy, reversing the prognosis given by doctors in Cuba.
Enríquez Nodarse highlighted the case as an example of the limitations of Cuba’s healthcare system, which he said lacked the technical resources and expertise to treat complex conditions. He also remembered Damir Ortiz, another Cuban child who died in Miami after contracting sepsis in a Cuban hospital. Enríquez Nodarse expressed hope for a future Cuban healthcare system that provides adequate care for all citizens.
