This is the ugly truth about end-stage socialism. In Venezuela, children are dying because of a lack of medicine and supplies.

CNN reports from a children’s hospital in Venezuela’s capital city where Lucero Rodriguez’ son, Dylan, is at risk of dying from cystic fibrosis. “At this point things are getting worse and worse,” Rodriguez tells CNN. “We can’t get medical supplies for the baby, we can’t even find the formula he needs to grow. Now we’re making sacrifices,” she adds.

“I’ve been in this hospital for 15 days and I’ve witnessed how children are dying every day,” Rodriguez says.

CNN reports that “70 to 80% of the medicines children need in Venezuela haven’t arrived” for months. Many young patients, including those with cancer, are simply not able to be treated. The mother of a 6 year old who is getting sporadic cancer treatment tells CNN, “I don’t know whose fault it is, the government or the opposition or X, Y, Z. I don’t know. It’s sad for us to suffer for whoever did this to our children.”

Dr. Urbina-Medina says the pediatric hospital has 10 beds for cancer treatment but there are only enough supplies to operate four of those beds. But it’s not just the immediate shortage of medicine that is the problem. The doctor shows CNN a leaky, moldy ICU bay that has not been repaired:

Meanwhile, there is an entire ward of the hospital that was burned out in a fire four years ago, before the death of Hugo Chavez, which has never been rebuilt:

Watch the entire report. It’s a good counter to the kind of leftist propaganda we usually get about health care in socialist countries like Cuba. Kudos to CNN for putting this together: