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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Angela Giuffrida in Polistena

‘Giving us oxygen’: Italy turns to Cuba to help revive ailing health system

Asbel Díaz Fonseca and other surgeons at work
Cuban surgeon Asbel Díaz Fonseca, centre right, performs laparoscopy surgery at Santa Maria degli Ungheresi hospital in Polistena. Photograph: Roberto Salomone/The Guardian

In the operating theatre at a hospital in Calabria, Asbel Díaz Fonseca and his team are preparing to perform abdominal surgery on a man in his sixties. They deliberate over which medical technique to use – the French or US model – before deciding on the latter.

But their main topic of pre-op conversation is food, namely which pizza is best: Neapolitan or Calabrian. There are subtle differences between the two, they say, but with a Neapolitan medic in the room, diplomacy prevails and they conclude that both types taste as good as each other.

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