Medical Negligence Contributed to Death of 8-Year-Old Migrant in Border Custody

An internal investigation has found that Border Patrol medical staff declined to review the medical file of an 8-year-old girl with a chronic heart condition and rare blood disorder before she died on her ninth day in custody. The nurse practitioner declined to review documents about the girl the day she died, and reported denying three or four requests from the girl’s mother for an ambulance. The surveillance video system at the Harlingen, Texas, station was out of service since April 13, a violation of federal law that prevented evidence collection. The report raised a host of new and troubling questions about what went wrong during the girl's nine days in custody, which far exceeded the agency's own limit of 72 hours.