José Luis Sánchez Pérez, Cuban worker of the health against the ebola in Sierra Leona

Young José Luis Sánchez Pérez is one of the Havana health worker who faced the Ebola   outbreak in Sierra Leona, where- as the colaborator himself says –an important but atypical mission was accomplished. Many lives had to be saved, with endless love for the fellow people, but without kisses or hugs.

Jose, as they call him, Master of Science in Nursing, at home and in the neighborhood, lives and works in Guanabacoa. The first homage paid to him when he returned from that country was in the Fragua Martiana ( Martí’s Forge) this Sunday; the second one, in the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), number one, Zone 96, in the D’Beche Neighborhood

Everywhere welcoming signs could be read, containing these and other praising phrases, “Jose, you accomplished your assignment, congratulation”; “We greet you full of pride”,  another one,  “Welcome José Luis”, and still another, the biggest one, “José Luis, you did your duty for the Revolution.”

Already at home, surrounded by his happy family, we could attain a dialogue, full of emotion, where, with José Luis’s silence and emotion, Cuban heroe of the battle against Ebola, were indeed to hold the tears. He told us about the decision without hesitation when he was called to the mission, about the impact of what he found in Sierra Leona, which was over all theory or information gotten, the fear he felt when he crossed the red line within the medical center in zone of highest precaution, and the continuous hours of work, with the responsibility to care for pediatric patients.

Many were the experiences; so many, appropiate for a book, with pages dedicated to tenderness, to professionalism, to nostalgia for the family, the proofs of brotherhood among companions, most of them striking,  experienced in the everyday life of the six months our professional spent in Africa, fighting against that fatal disease.

There were satisfactions, but also painfulness. Among the stories, the saddest one: the impossibility to save a four-month-old  baby, who died before his eyes. Jose says at that time  remembered so much his two beautiful little girls Yadira and Yakira, and how much children are protected in Cuba but he narrated that the happiest event was to see Enmanuel survive, a nine-year-old child, he had been taken care of in the “suspicious” department, and for whom he felt special affection. After having seen death reflected in his face, and having believed the child was dead, the great joy of meeting him, the decease passed over, and of listening the child calling him, “Potooo!” (a form of calling someone), but also adding another phrase which involved all his gratitude, “Poto, good friend.”

Translator: Reinaldo Fernández