Portrait of Juan del Pino, my father, in a bed at the geriatric ward of the Joaquín Albarrán hospital in Havana City on September 22, 2021. On that day, he was discharged from the hospital after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He was sent to wait for the death at home where the conditions for his required palliative care were not enough. The controversial decision was taken by the chief doctor of the geriatric ward when the health condition of my father was most fragile.

My father takes an aerosol therapy with salbutamol at the hospital after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Before undergoing aerosol theraphy, he was on oxygen theraphy. However, the chief doctor of the medical staff of the geriatric ward at the Joaquín Albarrán hospital decided to changed his treatment after a few disagreements with my father´s relatives due to the decision to discharge him from the hospital when his healt condition was most critical.

Laptop computer with image of Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) made of my father on August 27, 2021. The test was made in La Pradera health institution, a medical center west of the Cuban capital. According to the medical report made by radiology staff of the Joaquin Albarrán hospital, the CAT revealed the presence of a malignant tumor in his left lung. When the test was made, the tumor had already expanded to the right lobe of his liver and his pleura.

My father leaving from the medical institution definitively in the afternoon of September 22, 2022. At the parking lot of the Joaquín Albarrán hospital, he is accompanied by Mirta Rodriguez, my mother, my uncle and I. Two frieends also are accompanying. We try to rent a cab or other vehicle to return him home because the hospital didn´t have enough ambulances to transport patients.

Image of my father and my mother back home from the hospital in a cab. That was the last time that my father traveled through the streets of Havana while he was alive. The cost of the service of this cab was $500 CUP. This amount represented 25 % of the pension my father received monthly since he retirement.

After administering an enema to my father, my nephew, Yadiel L. Clavel, and my mother try to stop the intense diarrehea on the afternoon of September 24, 2021.

Picture of my father reciving hydration therapy with sodium chloride on a room of his house on September 22, 2022, the same day he was discharged from the hospital. Between the night of September 21 and the afternoon of September 22, he suffered intense bloody diarreha that seriously worsened his fragile health condition. However, the chief doctor of the geriatric ward of the hospital considered that my father was not suffering from dehydration, and therefore, the administration of hydration therapy was not necessary

As a consequence of high fevers, intense diarrhea, dypsnea and wet cough, my father lie on his deathbed. This picture shows his deep state of physical depauperation a few hours before his death.

A neighbor dresses my father´s body a few minutes after his death in the night of September 26, 2022. She puts socks on his feet to facilitate the collection of bones during the exhumation two years later.

My father´s empty bed after his body was removed by obituary workers and taken to the funeral home in the night of September 26, 2021. The photograph stages the original scene and it was taken in 2021, a year later.

Altar with a portrait of my father, spiritual vessels, and white flowers. It was placed in the living room of the house on 27 September 2021, the day after his death, and it remained there for one week. A religious neighbor recommended it to my mother because according to espiritism and its traditions, this type of religious service favors the ascent of the soul of the deceased person.

Gold medal with the image of the “Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre," the patron and protector of all Cubans. My father used to wear this medal with a gold necklace as an amulet for protection. Both the medal and necklace were given to him from one of his maternal aunts as a gift. When he was hospitalized, he decided to take them off and entrusted my mother to keep them safe. It was a clear sign that something no good was about to happen because my father had never taken off his gold medal and necklace

Relatives saying their last goodbyes on the morning of September 27, 2021. The family wished for the cremation of the body, but it was impossible. According to the information given by an employee of the necrological services, the cremation services were being limited. Only 14 deceased were cremated per day, and they had to die as consequence of COVID-19. Strangely, on September 26, 2021, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health reported only 3 deaths caused by COVID-19 in the province of Havana.

Documents and CD from my father´s hospitalization period. They were given to my mother on September 26, 2021, the same day that my father was discharged from the hospital. One of the documents is his medical record, containing aspects of his lung cancer diagnosis. On the same document, there is a prescription for my father to take dexamethasone, one per day, to relieve the symptoms of the malignant tumor and instructions to get an appointment with a pulmonologist doctor within 6 months. Ironically, my father didn´t even survive 96 hours after he was discharged from the Joaquín Albarrán hospital.

Casket with my father remains over another casket inside a collective tomb in the cemetery of La Lisa on the morning of September 7, 2021. Each collective tomb has been designed to shelter four caskets. They will be inside for two year before remains are exhumed.