EFE Agency.- A 9-year-old migrant boy, who ran out of water in the Arizona desert (USA) when he was traveling with his mother and another brother, he died on June 17 in a hospital in that state, reported this Friday the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Immigration authorities did not identify the victim or disclose his nationality.
The boy’s mother told authorities that her son “had no prior medical issues and believed that the heat contributed to his medical complications during the hike,” according to a CBP statement.
The woman asked the US emergency service for help on June 15 when she was lost with her two youngest children in the desert near Tubac (Arizona).
In her call, the woman said her 9-year-old son was experiencing seizures.
About half an hour later, Tubac firefighters and Border Patrol agents found the family in a remote location where a helicopter could not land and difficult for an ambulance to access.
The boy had to be carried by rescuers on foot before he could be transported to the Northwest Medical Center in Sahuarita (Arizona).
Due to his condition, he was referred on June 16 to a hospital in Mesa (Arizona), where he was diagnosed with “multi-organ failure and was placed on life support.”
That same day, Border Patrol informed the hospital that it was releasing the minor, his mother, and his other brother from their custody.
On June 17, the little boy passed away after succumbing to his medical complications.
The migrant mother told agents of the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility that she and her children crossed into USA with another unknown migrant in the early hours of June 15.
CBP has launched a campaign to warn migrants about the high temperatures in the desert in the summer, which easily exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius).
The death of the minor occurs after the death of the Panamanian girl Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, 8 years old and who suffered from anemia and heart disease.
The little girl died on May 17 in CBP custody at the facility in Harlingen (Texas) designed to hold migrants with contagious diseases. EFE
