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10:13, 13-Jun-2018
Sole survivor of Cuban plane crash still in critical condition
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The sole survivor of a fatal plane crash in Cuba that killed all of the other 112 people on board in mid-May remains in critical condition, the Calixto Garcia General hospital said on Tuesday.
Cuban national Maylen Diaz Almaguer, 19, is conscious, oriented and cooperating with the treatment, Dr. Carlos Alberto Martinez, director of the hospital in Havana, told reporters.
The patient's respiratory functions have been stabilized so that she can occasionally breathe on her own without the aid of mechanical ventilation, he said, but her prognosis is guarded, meaning doctors cannot say how her condition will evolve.
Cuban nurses walk along a street at the Calixto Garcia Hospital where the three survivors of the Cubana de Aviacion plane crash are hospitalized in Havana, May 21, 2018. /VCG Photo
Cuban nurses walk along a street at the Calixto Garcia Hospital where the three survivors of the Cubana de Aviacion plane crash are hospitalized in Havana, May 21, 2018. /VCG Photo
In the meantime, Cuban authorities continue to investigate the cause of the crash with the help of US and Mexican forensic experts.
Cubana Airlines operated the aircraft under a wet lease arrangement with Mexican charter airline Damojh (commercially known as Global Air), meaning it came with a flight and maintenance crew, which in this case numbered six people.
The Boeing 737 crashed and ignited a little past noon on May 18, just minutes after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport on its way to eastern Holguin province.
Nearly all the victims, mainly Cuban nationals, were killed on impact and in the resulting fire.
Two other women rescued alive along with Diaz later succumbed to their injuries.
Source(s): Xinhua News Agency