The flight from Havana, through Mexico City, capped days of anxious waiting and impassioned activity to get the boy to South Florida for surgery.
Christian Barrios, 21 months old, is at Jackson Memorial Hospital ``in stable though delicate condition,'' said Mexican physician Alejandro Morales Haro, who directed the three-paramedic airlift team.
Christian was brought by his mother, Odalys de la Caridad Osorio. He is afflicted with biliary atresia, a condition where there is no opening in the bile ducts.
Waiting for the child were his aunt, Juana Barrios, of Miami, and 25 other people, including relatives, friends and members of the Cuban American National Foundation. The foundation paid for the plane's $12,000 fuel and landing fees. International Medical Alert, a Mexico City-based private institution, donated its services at the urging of the Mexican consulate in Miami.
An initial lack of cooperation by Cuban authorities delayed the airlift unnecessarily, Morales said. The plane, a Lear 24 jet, left Mexico City at 5 p.m. Friday.
``When we got to Havana, we requested permission to land but the control tower refused to give it,'' the doctor said. ``Our pilot continued to insist, explaining that our visit was only for humanitarian reasons. Finally, after circling the skies for more than 30 minutes, we were cleared to land.''
As soon as the plane landed, airport authorities questioned all the crew members for more than an hour, said Jose Antonio Martinez, one of the paramedics.
``They wanted to know who we were, where we came from, and why we went to Cuba,'' Martinez said. ``They wanted to know how we learned about the boy and, mainly, who hired us to make the trip.''
Permission for Christian and his mother to come to the United States was granted Thursday by the State Department, through the efforts of U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, and the Willy Chirino Foundation. The Cuban government authorized their departure months ago.
``We just said we didn't know anything, except that we had been told there was a boy suffering from congenital biliary atresia who needed an urgent liver transplant and that we had only a few hours to fly him to Miami,'' he said. ``The only information we gave them was the telephone number for the Mexican consulate in Miami, which had originally called us.''
After the interrogation, the authorities told the medics that they couldn't fly on to Pinar del Rio, where the boy lived, because the airport there didn't have any landing lights, Morales said.
``When we told the Cuban officials that our crew was familiar with instrument flying and could land the plane under the worst possible conditions, they told us we'd have to pick Christian up by land, because San Julian Airport in Pinar del Rio is a military base and we couldn't fly in,'' the doctor said.
The authorities then produced a police car and an ambulance, which took the team to Pepe Portilla Hospital in Pinar del Rio, a two-hour drive west of Havana. The Mexican medics had to pay the authorities $300 in cash for the service, said paramedic Raquel Reyes Alvarez.
There, Dr. Jesus Laso Cabrera turned the boy over to the airlift team, she said. Before returning to Havana, the Mexicans gave hospital administrators an undetermined amount of medicine and an artificial respirator valued at $1,500, the paramedic said.
``The situation in Cuba is very sad,'' said Guido Sanchez, another paramedic. ``It's obvious that they have good doctors but they lack the resources to care for their patients.''
The ambulance plane left Havana at 4 a.m. Saturday and landed in Miami at 5:22 a.m. Shortly after 6 a.m., the boy was delivered to the pediatric unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
``We've gone through a tremendous effort'' for Christian, his aunt said. ``At times, I feared we would never get him out of Cuba in time. Thank God, his arrival is a dream come true.''
The liver transplant is expected to cost $200,000. The Willy Chirino Foundation has promised to pay hospital and treatment expenses. Donations may be sent to the Jackson Memorial Foundation, c/o Christian Barrios, 1500 NW 12th Ave., Suite 29, Miami FL 33136.
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