A 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died in U.S. custody in September, marking the sixth migrant child to die after being apprehended in the past eight months. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Weber told CBS the girl had a “history of congenital heart defects” and entered Office of Refugee Resettlement care in March 2018 in a “medically fragile” state. “Following a surgical procedure, complications left the child in a comatose state. She was transported to a nursing facility in Phoenix, Arizona, for palliative care in May after release from a San Antonio hospital,” Weber said. The child was then transferred to an Omaha, Nebraska, nursing facility to be closer to family, and then a children’s hospital where she died “due to fever and respiratory distress.” The ORR did not release additional details about the child. Her death was reportedly the first death of a child in migrant custody since 2010, according to ORR and Department of Homeland Security officials. The news comes after a Guatemalan teenager died in Customs and Border Protection custody earlier this week after being diagnosed with “influenza A.”
