Here's What Likely Killed Migrant Girl, 7

Hospital officials say septic shock likely killed Guatemalan 7-year-old
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2018 2:52 PM CST
Migrant Girl's Probable Cause of Death: Septic Shock
Claudia Maquin, 27, shows a photo of her daughter, Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin in Raxruha, Guatemala, on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018. The 7-year-old girl died in a Texas hospital, two days after being taken into custody by border patrol agents in a remote stretch of New Mexico desert.   (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)

Hospital officials who treated Jakelin Caal Maquin say the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl likely died of septic shock, according to newly released documents from the Department of Homeland Security. The documents provide what NBC News calls the most detailed timeline so far of the Dec. 8 death of Caal, who was picked up by US authorities along with her father and a large group of migrants on Dec. 6 near New Mexico's Antelope Wells Port of Entry, and the release comes as her family is calling for an investigation into her death, USA Today reports. Official autopsy results are still pending. The group was detained around 9:15pm, according to a timeline from CNN. It was around 5am on Dec. 7, as the girl and her father were preparing to board a bus that would take them to a Border Patrol station 90 miles away, that Caal's father told authorities his daughter was sick and vomiting.

Agents arranged for an ambulance to meet the bus at the station, but by the time the bus arrived there, Caal said his daughter was not breathing. "At this point her temperature was 105.9 degrees," DHS says. Border Patrol emergency medical technicians revived the girl twice; she was ultimately flown via helicopter to a children's hospital, where she died at 12:35am on Dec. 8 with her father at her side. DHS says the initial indication from the hospital is that the girl died of "sepsis shock"; per Mayo Clinic, sepsis is a complication of an infection, and if left untreated, it can progress to septic shock—which can be fatal. When they were first detained, Caal's father signed a form saying both he and his daughter were healthy, but the girl's family has taken issue with that form, noting that it was in English—a language her father does not speak or read. (Officials have said this is what happens "when migrants come illegally.")

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