Ileana Legón Pereira, a mother living in Ciego de Ávila, shared a heart-wrenching message on Facebook last Wednesday, urgently seeking assistance for her two gravely ill children. The unbearable daily power outages exceeding 22 hours in this province have made their situation untenable.
Her son, Christopher Max Espinosa Legón, is an eight-year-old suffering from cerebral palsy with several brain malformations, moderate hydrocephalus with an Evans index of 68%, a cyst in a brain ventricle awaiting surgery, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and severe autism with self-harming behaviors. Christopher is unable to walk or communicate.
Her 13-year-old daughter, Gabriela Alejandra Piñeiro Legón, battles severe systemic lupus erythematosus along with rheumatoid arthritis. She has undergone two hip surgeries — the first in 2023 for bilateral Coxa Valga Antersa, and the second at the end of 2024 to remove material due to rejection and a bacterial infection threatening to disintegrate her left hip bone — and she needs a third corrective surgery.
The absence of electricity has turned caring for Christopher into a daily emergency. He relies solely on pureed food, which cannot be prepared or stored without power. "My little boy has drastically lost weight; comparing photos from winter to now, the difference is evident," Ileana expressed.
Without access to animations or music — stimuli that help keep him calm — Christopher experiences severe crises. "He becomes constantly agitated, very aggressive; he injures himself, bites, tries to tear off his ears until they bleed, has pulled out the hair from the front half of his head on several occasions, and is under treatment by a child psychiatrist, but even that doesn't stabilize him," the mother recounted.
Adding to the burden is the challenge of acquiring the five or six disposable diapers Christopher needs daily, an item scarce in Cuba.
Ileana herself deals with significant health issues: epilepsy, intracranial hypertension, cortical atrophy of the frontal lobe, and Arnold's occipital neuralgia. On December 23, 2025, she suffered a complete left bundle branch block of the heart, interpreted as a heart attack, with ongoing sequelae under study.
"As a mother, it is incredibly difficult for me to make such a public plea and expose my children this way, who are the most important part of my life. But I have reached a point of such desperation that I don't know what else to do," she shared.
Her specific request is for a power generator for their home. "If someone cannot help directly, please share my post to give it more visibility and leave it in the hands of Almighty God, hoping it touches hearts," she appealed.
Since March 16, 2026, Ciego de Ávila has been declared in a state of "maximum blackout," with outages sometimes exceeding 30 consecutive hours. In March, residents of the Vista Alegre neighborhood staged a protest banging pots and pans after enduring more than 29 hours without electricity or water.
The power grid collapse is part of an unprecedented health crisis: Cuba has a surgical waiting list of over 96,000 patients, more than 11,000 of whom are children, while around five million people with chronic illnesses face treatment interruptions due to medication shortages.
"You cannot imagine the level of desperation it takes to expose my children like this on social media," Ileana concluded, highlighting the plight of thousands of Cuban families caught between illness and state neglect.
Understanding the Crisis in Ciego de Ávila
What specific health challenges do Ileana's children face?
Ileana's son, Christopher, has cerebral palsy, multiple brain malformations, moderate hydrocephalus, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and severe autism. Her daughter, Gabriela, suffers from severe systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, requiring multiple hip surgeries.
How have power outages affected the family's situation?
The extended power outages have made it impossible to prepare or store the pureed food Christopher relies on, exacerbating his health issues. The lack of electricity also prevents access to calming stimuli for him, leading to severe behavioral crises.
What is the broader context of the crisis in Cuba?
Cuba is experiencing an unprecedented health crisis, with a massive surgical waiting list and widespread shortages of medication, affecting millions with chronic illnesses. This is compounded by severe and prolonged power outages.