Guatemalan boy who died in US custody suffered from brain infection

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Guatemalan boy who died in US custody suffered from brain infection

The 16-year-old, who died in a Texas children’s hospital, travelled to the US from Camotán, hoping to be reunited with his older brother

Nina Lakhani
Fri 3 May 2019 17.13 BST First published on Thu 2 May 2019 18.59 BST

A Guatemalan boy who died at a Texas children’s hospital after being detained on the US southern border was suffering from a brain infection, the Guardian has learned. He was the third migrant child from Guatemala to die in US government custody in the past five months.

Juan De León Gutiérrez, 16, had travelled to the US from Camotán, a poor rural community in the Chiquimula region of eastern Guatemala, hoping to be reunited with his older brother.

It is unclear when or where the boy first fell ill, but he died on Tuesday, days after being detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and transferred to a government-contracted children’s detention shelter.

“My son was always healthy,” his mother, Tránsito Gutiérrez Oloroso, told local newspaper Prensa Libre. “I ask that they treat his remains with dignity.”

Juan was diagnosed with a frontal lobe infection at Driscoll children’s hospital in Corpus Christi.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/02/guatemalan-migrant-boy-us-detention-died-brain-infection

[dewsgirl]

1. A brain infection? Most healthy 16 yr olds don't die from

Brain infections. Again how many of these stories are they successfully covering up?

[Pachamama]

2. That's an autopsy that should be made public....

Assuming this is true, I would like to know what brain infection and also what was the care (or lack of care) that he had that led up to his death and while he was in Custody.

I believe he contracted it in close quarter incarceration and even if he didn't, they didn't provide proper care and his death was preventable.

[csziggy]

3. It could have been encephalomyelitis

I knew an adult who died of it. It was ironic since she was a horse trainer and riding instructor and was diligent about getting her horses vaccinated for the equine versions.

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_disseminated_encephalomyelitis

(Equine) Eastern/Western Equine Encephalomyelitis - https://aaep.org/guidelines/vaccination-guidelines/core-vaccination-guidelines/easternwestern-equine-encephalomyelitis

[SunSeeker]

4. The doctors should have never sent him back to the detention center with a fever!