Autopsy: A migrant boy who died in the United States had the flu

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

An autopsy report confirmed on Wednesday that an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy, who died on Christmas Day while he was in the care of the US Border Patrol, had succumbed to a flu. occupy miners on the southern border.

The New Mexico Medical Examiner's Office released the results of his autopsy on Felipe Gomez Alonzo two days after the Guatemalan authorities reported receiving a copy of the report revealing that the boy had a rapid and progressive infection that had led to a failure organs.

An autopsy performed last week for Jakelin Caal Maquin, the other deceased Guatemalan child, aged 7, showed that she was also suffering from a bacterial infection that quickly resulted in sepsis and a organ failure.

Their death, just over two weeks apart, is due to the increase in the number of families arriving at the southern border of the United States.

US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, has been addressing social media in recent days, claiming that Congress was facing what she called an emergency by providing border authorities with the information they needed. The tools and resources needed to "fulfill our humanitarian and security mission".

She went Wednesday to El Paso, Texas, for her first stop on a border tour to badess the increase in the number of migrants and the response from the ministry. "Our system and facilities have never been structured to withstand the current influx of immigrants," she said.

Gomez Alonzo and his father, Agustin Gomez, were apprehended by the border patrol in mid-December after the family announced that they had left Guatemala because of extreme poverty and lack of safety. Opportunities they faced.

The father said that other members of his community had been able to cross the US border with children and that he thought he and his son would have the same chance. Felipe was chosen to accompany his father because he was the eldest son.

Once in the custody of the Border Patrol, Gomez Alonzo and his father were taken to several facilities, including the processing center located at the entrance port of Paso del Norte, and then the Border Patrol Station. El Paso.

On the eve of Gomez Alonzo's death, they arrived around 1 am at the Border Patrol Station in Alamogordo, New Mexico, about 90 kilometers north of the border, according to the agency. Officials said the two had been transferred there "because of the capabilities" in El Paso.

The day Felipe pbaded away, a border services officer noticed that the boy was coughing and that he had "bright eyes" and sent him to the hospital, Border Patrol said.

It was discovered that he had a fever of 103 degrees (39.4 degrees Celsius), officials said.

Forensic scientists in New Mexico stated in their report that the boy complained of sore throat, congestion and fever before being taken to the hospital where he had been tested positive to the flu.

Federal authorities said that he was under observation for 90 minutes before being released with prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen. But the boy became ill a few hours later and was readmitted to the hospital, where he died later.

The young man had apparently become insensitive to returning to the hospital, said forensic doctors.

"Our thoughts are going to his family during this difficult time," said Dr. Kurt Nolte, the state's chief medical investigator, in a statement.

Authorities in New Mexico have previously said the boy has a positive test for the flu.

His autopsy showed that he was suffering from a staphylococcal infection of the lungs before the bacteria entered his bloodstream and that a septicemia broke out. A toxicology report issued by the medical examiner shows that he had Benadryl in his system.

Jakelin Caal died December 8 in El Paso, just over a day after being apprehended by border patrol agents with her father after entering the United States.