Los Angeles – The attorney for the family of an eight-year-old girl who died last month in the custody of the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has requested an autopsy to determine the causes. of the death of the little girl, reported the specialized media Border Report.
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Karla Vargas, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the nonprofit organization is representing the family and has already asked the US government for an autopsy on the little girl’s body, but so far no autopsy has been done. granted.
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He also assured that his organization is prepared to file a lawsuit on behalf of the family if they wish.
CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which took over the investigation, released a report last Thursday that revealed that between the afternoon of May 14, when the Honduran family arrived in Harlingen, and the morning of May 17, the mother sought care for the child at least nine times for flu-like symptoms.
On May 17, the day she died, the girl (who was born in Panama) was seen by a nurse practitioner four times after complaining of stomach pain, nausea and shortness of breath.
The nurse admitted that she “refused three or four requests” from the mother to call an ambulance or take the girl to a hospital, according to the OPR report.
After the fourth visit to the infirmary, the mother returned carrying the child in her arms when she was apparently having a seizure. Shortly after the minor stopped responding and it was then that the emergency services were called and the girl was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Vargas told Border Report that the mother “repeatedly” told CBP officers that the little girl had pre-existing health conditions, including a heart condition and sickle cell anemia, and that she needed to be taken to a hospital.
“While the investigation is obviously important to name the people involved and identify the issues that arose that led to the death of this girl, it is equally important to really see the big picture and identify the fact that there are systemic issues in I play here,” added the lawyer.
The minor had entered the United States along with her parents and siblings, ages 13 and 14, on May 9 through an area near the Gateway International Bridge port of entry in Brownsville, Texas.
The family was sent to the CBP processing center in Donna, Texas on the morning of May 10, where they were all medically evaluated. Records indicate that the girl did not complain of any acute illness or injury that day, but the family provided a medical history detailing the chronic conditions she suffered from.
On the afternoon of May 14, the girl was diagnosed with type A influenza, was prescribed medication to treat this condition, and it was determined that she needed to be transferred to Harlingen for her medical problems, which included cardiomyopathy, for which she had undergone heart surgery at the age of five.
