( CNN ) -- When Alan Gross reaches his 65th birthday next month , he will tell himself that it will be the last one he spends in a Cuban prison cell , Gross ' attorney said Wednesday . `` His hunger strike took a toll on him , '' Gross ' attorney Scott Gilbert told CNN during a trip to Havana to visit his client . `` He told me yesterday that his birthday that he marks on May 2 would be the last birthday that he marks in Havana . '' Gross is serving a 15-year sentence for bringing satellite communications equipment to Cuba as part of his work as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development . He was convicted in March 2011 . U.S. officials said Gross was merely trying to help Cubans bypass the island 's stringent restrictions on Internet access . But Cuban authorities say Gross was part of a plot to create `` a Cuban spring '' and destabilize the island 's single-party communist government . `` He was sent to Cuba five times on a government mission and on a government mission that was blatantly illegal under Cuba law , '' Gilbert said . `` He was arrested , he was convicted , he was sentenced to 15 years in confinement , and to date , our government has done virtually nothing to obtain his release . '' Earlier this month , Gross embarked on a nine-day hunger strike after reports surfaced that after his arrest , USAID had tried to create `` a Cuban Twitter '' using cellphone text messaging services on the island . Cuban officials responded angrily , saying the text-messaging program showed that Washington was still trying to subvert the island 's government . While USAID and State Department officials defended the now-inactive program as a way to reach the Cuban people , U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy said it had put Gross at greater risk . Gross later said he was suspending his hunger strike after his mother pleaded him to begin eating again . Since his arrest , Gross has suffered a slew of health problems , his attorney said , and lost over 100 pounds . `` Alan is confined to one room , 23 hours a day , he spends his day there in pajamas , he 's fed meals in his room . He 's let out for an hour a day , to exercise an hour a day in a small , walled courtyard where you can barely see the sky . '' Cuban officials have said they want to negotiate Gross ' case with representatives of the United States in conjunction with the fates of three Cuban intelligence operatives serving lengthy sentences in U.S. prisons . But U.S. officials have called that effort blackmail and said the cases are separate matters because Gross was not working as a spy in Cuba . The diplomatic impasse is taking its toll on Gross , Gilbert said . `` The White House has yet to engage on this issue ; we need the president to make this a priority . Without that , Alan will die in Cuba , '' Gilbert said . Other detained Americans .
Alan Gross , jailed in Cuba , says his May 2 birthday will be his last in Havana , lawyer says . Gross was convicted for bringing satellite communications to the island for USAID . He launched a hunger strike after details of agency 's `` Cuban Twitter '' plan surfaced . Score: 6