Border Patrol does not have protocols in place to assess the medical needs of children with pre-existing conditions, according to an independent report released Tuesday into the death of an 8-year-old Panamanian girl in federal custody.
The girl’s death was “a preventable tragedy resulting from” failures in the “child custody and medical systems” within US Customs and Border Protection, the agency that includes Border Patrol, according to the report.
It is the latest damning finding in the May 17 death of Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez, who was in her ninth day in custody with her family in Harlingen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the busiest corridors for the crossing. of migrants. She had a chronic heart condition and sickle cell anemia.
An internal investigation found that Border Patrol medical personnel refused to review the girl’s file.
The report released Tuesday was made by an independent monitor working to enforce the final terms of the Flores settlement agreement, a measure created to provide child welfare protections for children in immigration custody.
“Failure to consult a physician or local health center for more extensive testing raises fundamental concerns regarding the ability of the CBP medical system to adequately care for children at elevated medical risk,” the report says.
CBP did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Mabel Álvarez Benedicks, the girl’s mother, told The Associated Press that she reported her daughter’s condition to authorities when she and her family were being processed at the border, but authorities did not notify other staff at the time. in which the family was moved to a second facility designated for families, an issue the monitor highlighted in an earlier report to the court.
Six days later, the girl tested positive for influenza and had a temperature of 101.8 F (38.78 C), according to the report. She was given medication, placed in isolation with her family, but three days later, the girl and her mother made numerous visits to the medical unit, according to the report.
Anadith reported vomiting and then stomach pain to the health provider, who did not contact a doctor on call, the report showed. There is no protocol outlining when a doctor on call should be contacted.
Alvarez pleaded with officials to call an ambulance to hospitalize Anadith as her daughter had pain in her bones, was having trouble breathing and was unable to walk, but the health provider did not consider transferring the girl to a hospital, according to the report. .
After Alvarez took her daughter to the medical unit when she seized and became unresponsive, the girl was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, according to the report.
“Poor clinical decision-making by healthcare providers” is responsible for Anadith’s death, according to the report.
“These unforgivable systemic failures were exacerbated by simple disregard for his life,” said Melissa Adamson, an attorney with the National Center for Youth Law.
Three other children have died in Border Patrol custody this year.
An unaccompanied 15-year-old Guatemalan girl died on July 10 of an underlying illness while in federal custody. The girl had been hospitalized at Children’s Hospital of El Paso for a significant pre-existing condition when the US Department of Homeland Security referred her to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in May, the Department of Health and Human Services said. USA in a statement on July 11. .
In May, a 17-year-old Honduran youth died in US custody. Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza died at a detention center in Safety Harbor, Florida. His mother said his son had epilepsy but he did not show signs of being seriously ill before he left for the United States.
In March, a 4-year-old “medically fragile unaccompanied child from Honduras” died at a hospital in Michigan, according to a Health and Human Services statement at the time.
