An eight-year-old girl died in federal custody on May 17 while in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol. An internal investigation has found that she suffered from a 104.9-degree fever the day before she died, but was still not taken to a hospital for medical care.
The Customs and Border Patrol investigation also found that “[a] contracted nurse practitioner also declined to review documents and refused repeated requests for an ambulance from the mother of Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez in the hours before the child appeared to suffer a seizure and died on her ninth day in the agency’s custody.”
The Panamanian born child of Honduran parents arrived in Brownsville, TX with two of her siblings and parents on May 9. She “underwent medical screening as part of the intake process, during which her parents shared the 8-year-old’s medical history, including that she had congenital heart disease and sickle cell anemia.”
According to a statement from Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), “The nurse practitioner also reported denying three or four requests from the girl’s mother for an ambulance to be called or for her to be taken to the hospital.”
“Another contracted medical employee reported having brought a pile of documents and a bottle of folic acid tablets from the family’s property to the nurse practitioner at approximately 10:30 a.m. The nurse practitioner declined to review the papers but did agree to the mother’s request to administer one folic acid tablet to her daughter,” the statement continued.
Even worse, the OPR found that “Contracted medical personnel did not consult with on-call physicians (including an on-call pediatrician) about the girl’s condition, symptoms, or treatment. The contracted medical personnel failed to document numerous medical encounters, emergency antipyretic interventions, and administrations of medicine.”
The investigation also revealed that the surveillance video system had been out of service at the station since April 13, which is “a violation of federal law that prevented evidence collection.” Although the system was flagged for repair, it wasn’t fixed until six days after she died on May 23.
CBP’s acting commissioner Troy Miller said “the initial investigation ‘provides important new information on this tragic death’ and he reaffirmed recent measures including a review of all ‘medically fragile’ cases in custody to ensure they are out of custody as soon as possible.”
Currently, the family is residing in New York City with relatives while funeral arrangements are being made for the deceased.