A Guatemalan teenager died in a US hospital in the custody of the border patrol, the Foreign Ministry of Guatemala informed on Thursday, becoming the third minor in this country to die in similar circumstances in the last four months.
The 16-year-old, originally from the eastern town of Camotán, bordering Honduras, died on Tuesday after being operated on for a head infection in a hospital in the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The teenager had been arrested on April 19th when he illegally entered the United States through the El Paso border and was about to begin a process of family reunification from a Brownsville shelter.
When he was evaluated by the hostel’s medical team, it was reported that he had a delicate clinical picture for his health, so he was sent to a local hospital, where due to the seriousness of his health condition, he was transferred to a children’s hospital,”
said the statement said
At the medical center he underwent emergency surgery, with a severe infection in the frontal lobe that showed no improvement, even after a surgical intervention to stabilize the pressure inside the head area.
The case joins the death of seven-year old Jakelin Caal, of the indigenous municipality of Raxruhá, who also died in a hospital in the United States in official custody after crossing the border illegally with his father.
A few days later, Felipe Gómez, an eight-year-old boy who lived in the remote village of Yalambojoch in western Guatemala, died in a hospital in El Paso after being intercepted by border police along with his father.