When Osbeli walked through the doors of the Doctor Ernesto Guevara de la Serna General Teaching Hospital, she couldn't do it on her own; she was confined to a wheelchair. She had previously been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. In its acute phase, the disease had reduced her mobility, and she required constant assistance to cope with her 49 years of life.

She arrived at the institution with the strange wink of someone who has agreed to resist pain. Immobility syndrome and muscular atrophy of the limbs had macabrely robbed her of her independence. Inside, she carried a mixture of uncertainties. But she was very clear that this was not the end of her life story, and she multiplied all the invisible threads that sustained her that morning when she began her first rehabilitation consultation.

Days, weeks, and months of exhausting sessions followed, where expert hands, more than equipment, helped her regain her strength. With a program that ranged from the simplest to the most complex, they applied exercises, sessions on the mattress, and with a lot of patience, they managed to re-educate her gait.

Osbeli left the service with the satisfaction of feeling the weight of her steps again. She was able to resume her duties as an engineer at the rolling mill, restart all the goals she had put on hold, and make peace with her body. She said goodbye with a grateful face.
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Osbeli is not the only one who has entrusted her recovery to the professionalism of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation service at Guevara. A recent story circulating in its corridors tells of the remarkable change in a patient with severe respiratory disability due to obstructive insufficiency, who, after 10 weeks of rehabilitation, put aside his walker and now tackles long journeys on foot and says he feels calm again.

Doctor Misleydis Guerra Leiva, a first-degree specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and head of the Academic Committee for the specialty, speaks with great pride about the work carried out by the team to restore vitality to every person who comes to the service with doubts and fears of losing their quality of life, written all over their faces.

“Although the popular imagination associates the specialty with treating only orthopedic patients and those with cerebrovascular diseases, our profile is very broad,” explains the doctor. "We see cases from all specialties. We provide cardiovascular rehabilitation for geriatric patients, burn victims, amputees, pediatric patients, rheumatology patients, cancer patients, HIV/AIDS patients, and many more.

"All areas of healthcare have similar services. Here, we treat hospitalized patients and those who require an intensive program due to the severity of their injuries and disabilities. The goal is to achieve community-based rehabilitation, especially because we know that the population faces a major challenge in terms of transportation these days.

"The family is a very important support system, and I always tell patients that the most important thing is cooperation, the desire to recover, and that willpower is invaluable.

"Our technology is a bit outdated, but the electromedical staff tries to maintain it as best as possible, and today we have what we need to treat anyone. I like to think that more than technology, what we need is a pair of hands and a strong desire to work to achieve change.

“Here, both neurological and osteoarticular disabilities, such as hip fractures, which are the most debilitating because they occur in geriatric patients, are rehabilitated, and even in the first few hours, in the preoperative period, we already begin to work.”

THERAPY AND SUPPORT

The assistant professor recalls that 15 years ago, when they arrived at the service, people looked at them strangely, out of disbelief, but today they are part of a multidisciplinary team and even treat seriously ill patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), whether for traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, or cerebrovascular disease.

“Heart attack patients must undergo hospital rehabilitation within the first 48 hours, so imagine our responsibility in their recovery. The entire department knows how important it is to intervene promptly.”

It is difficult to find Dr. Misleydis sitting idly by. She works long hours with patients suffering from multiple conditions. For example, she now applies all her knowledge to diseases such as psoriasis, which involves the use of natural and traditional medicine, magnetotherapy, ozone, and, in complicated cases, other techniques and therapies.

Currently, the service is defending its impact with very positive results in 10 cases selected to treat calcific tendinitis or calcific bursitis of the shoulder. They have achieved a notable impact in addressing this disease, which is mainly seen in women over 50 and causes significant disability because it produces what is known as frozen shoulder.

“We are performing a treatment with iontophoresis with acetic acid and ultrasound, and we have resolved all of the cases under study. This condition requires surgery, specifically minimally invasive surgery, and the service has been able to avoid these surgical interventions. We are pleased to know that we are providing the possibility of continuing to work and contribute to society.”

The well-integrated team offers ozone therapy, magnetic beds, electrotherapy, laser thermotherapy, ultrasound, and other treatments to those who need them. They also have a gym, a pain clinic, and thousands of devices that, through sensitivity, plausibly manage to restore dreams, hopes, and joy to faces that refuse to give up.