Tenacity Always Reaches Success

Doctor Adriel Orozco walks through life without airs of grandeur. Rather, he moves busily, with a furrowed brow, his mind distant at moments, but with that ability to land instantly when an opportune answer is needed.

Multiple responsibilities fall on his shoulders, which he manages to carry out, not without the occasional jolt. Because sometimes an essential medication is urgently needed to save a child’s life.

Adriel, or rather Orozco, as everyone calls him at the Eliseo Noel Caamaño Pediatric Hospital, has the capacity and determination to know whether a medication is in stock and, if not, at which institution to locate it.

This young man knows when he leaves home, but he is never certain of the hour he will return, because once at the hospital there are many tasks and decisions he must assume.

As deputy director of Medical Assurance, the vicissitudes in the face of the shortage of supplies are countless, and distributing the little among many sometimes becomes a disconcerting practice.

That dilemma has marked his existence in recent years at the head of this important activity.

One thing he is clear about: every drug that arrives at the hospital represents salvation for the little ones. Hence the seriousness with which he decides the distribution of medicines and the joy that is drawn on his face when a donation arrives from the many solidary friends of Cuba.

Doctor Orozco achieves a praiseworthy performance at the head of the processes under his supervision, but if asked, first of all he will highlight the love for his specialty — the one he studied so much for, at the cost of sacrifice and tenacity.

To reach the first degree in the Orthopedics and Traumatology specialty, there were many sleepless hours and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pages that passed before his eyes as part of his training.

With pride, he mentions that at the beginning it was Nursing that would mark the course to follow on the path toward concretizing his desire to be a doctor. Another turning point in his life was represented by that first time he entered a surgical room and discovered that fascinating universe.

Upon achieving excellent academic results while working as a nurse, he was given the opportunity to enroll in the Medicine program.

The years dedicated to study would be countless, but step by step, and with great effort, he was giving shape and body to his desire to be a doctor and later opt for the Orthopedics specialty.

On that intense journey, accumulating experiences and knowledge, he fulfilled a mission in Venezuela, where he found himself at the head of an operating room, successfully contributing to the recovery of hundreds of Venezuelans.

Upon returning from that country, he took his state exam, and it is at that moment, once passed, that perhaps the decisive instants that have molded his professionalism flashed through his mind at once: the decisive support of his mother, his time at the José Luis López Tabranes Hospital, then at the Military one, his time at the Faustino, the teaching of professor Álvarez Núñez, and above all his passion for his specialty.

Nothing comforts him more than attending his consultation and serving as a pediatric doctor in Orthopedics. He manages, although sometimes he doesn’t know how, to keep up with and fulfill all the remaining tasks.

It will be the fruit of dedication, sometimes to the detriment of his own personal life. Of the 24 hours in a day, many are the ones he dedicates to the Pediatric Hospital — a fundamental place to which he returns each day like one who enters that warm and necessary refuge, despite the complexity of the moment. Because not everything is rosy; there are also misunderstandings, stumbles, shortages, but above all, the desire to see the children healthy.

That is why he gets emotional when, passing through the city, he hears that comforting phrase: «Doctor! Do you remember me? You treated me years ago.» And although he does not fully remember, he stops and returns the affectionate greeting.

Because a recovered child represents the reason he chose this career — one of the most sacrificed and beautiful — and which, despite everything, continues to motivate him every day.