Two prominent Cuban doctors die from coronavirus: Ricardo González and Héctor Terry

October 3, 2021

The renowned Cuban doctors Ricardo González Menéndez and Héctor Terry Molinet died as a result of complications from contracting coronavirus in Cuba.

"We have to report the deaths of two doctors, two great losses for Cuban Public Health and for their families. Professors Héctor Terry Molinet, with extensive experience in the area of public health, as an epidemiologist; and Professor Ricardo González, a recognized psychiatrist, dedicated to addictions," said Dr. Francisco Durán García, national director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP).

Born in Pinar del Río on January 15, 1936, Dr. Ricardo Ángel González Menéndez was a distinguished Cuban psychiatrist, physician, and essayist. Doctor of Sciences, Doctor of Medicine, specialist of II Degree in Psychiatry, Doctor of Medical Sciences, consulting professor and full professor of Psychiatry at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana, Professor González Menéndez also served as president of the National Commission of Medical Ethics.

"Marijuana is a hard drug that is included along with alcohol and others, among the first psychoactive substances capable of notably transforming human behavior," declared Dr. González Menéndez in 2015 when assessing the current trend toward "that phantom" of marijuana legalization, the most consumed illegal drug in the entire world, according to Granma.

The professor, with more than 30 years of experience in the treatment and rehabilitation of addicted patients, noted that it is urgent to dispel myths with realities that are established science. There is sufficient updated scientific information about the triggering of schizophrenia, cognitive deterioration, carcinogenic action and sudden violence of marijuana, González Menéndez indicated at that time.

For his part, Dr. Héctor Terry Molinet was part of the first graduation of doctors who obtained their degrees after 1959, after having started their studies during the government period of dictator Fulgencio Batista. At that time, he held the status of honorary member of the Cuban Society of Public Health (SOCUSAP).

As a member of the Revolutionary Directorate, Dr. Terry Molinet joined the insurrectional struggle against the regime and was a companion of young people such as José Antonio Echeverría and those known as the martyrs of Humboldt 7: the combatants Fructuoso Rodríguez, José Machado Rodríguez, Juan Pedro Carbó Serviá and Joe Westbrook.

He completed his Rural Social Service in Manzanillo, where he served as Sub-Director of Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Regional Health Department; in 1968 he assumed the position of Chief of Occupational Medicine in the Provincial Health Department of South Oriente and the following year, Chief of Hygiene.

In 1969 he received the title of specialist of I Degree in Hygiene and Epidemiology and the following year was appointed Chief of the Provincial Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology and later Sub-Director until 1973 when he was promoted to Provincial Director of Health.

In 1977 he was promoted to National Director of Hygiene of the Ministry of Public Health and, the following year, Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

In 1980 he was promoted to Vice Minister in charge of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Health Education. That same year he achieved the category of specialist of II Degree in Hygiene and Epidemiology. In 1991, as Vice Minister, he also assumed the position of Director of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene.

In March 1993 he was awarded the Carlos J. Finlay Order and on April 19 of that year he was relieved of his responsibility as Vice Minister after publicly stating that optic neuritis was due to nutritional deficiencies of a population that, in those years, was entering the serious economic crisis known as the "special period."

In September of that same year 1993 he began working at the Home for the Elderly "Manuel Aneiro Subirat" as an attending physician and that same month was elected President of the Base Association of Combatants "Jaime Vilella," of the Plaza de la Revolución municipality.

Dr. Terry ended his working days between attending to the combatants of the revolution in Havana and hopeful of obtaining foreign financing to launch a balneotherapy program, restoring Cuba's spas.

The appearance of AIDS in Cuba also found Dr. Terry Molinet working as vice minister of Public Health, in charge of Hygiene and Epidemiology. "AIDS is a terribly fascinating subject, it came to occupy 90% of my work as vice minister of Public Health," he stated in an interview in March 2020.

His experiences in fighting epidemics were shared by Dr. Terry in the fight against COVID which unfortunately would put an end to his fruitful medical life.