As an outage swept through several communities in the municipality of Rio Cauto in eastern Cuba, disabling electric power and the telephone service, a 6-year-old girl lay feverish and in pain - her 12th hour of suffering.

The doctor treating her at the family home in Granma Province suspected appendicitis requiring emergency transport. An outage resulting from a power-grid failure prevented him from directly contacting an ambulance. The physician turned to a father-son team of amateur radio operators, Jorge [HORE-HAY] Bonilla [BONE-EEE-YUH] Mainegra and his son, Edgar Bonilla Mainegra. The hams, however, found that their own radios were also without backup power because of the fuel shortage -- that is, until a neighbour let them make use of the battery from his motorcycle.

The general call was received by Santiago de Cuba by station CL8 YDY, who was able to connect with the emergency system. The station is listed on QRZ.com as being in Santiago de Cuba. The callsign holder is Yoendrys García Rodríguez.

According to various media reports, surgery was performed at the hospital and was a success.