Photo : Courtesy of family Seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin , the small girl who died while migrating to the United States from Guatemala, died from a bacterial infection known as streptococcal sepsis while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, according to an autopsy. Advertisement The El Paso medical examiner released the autopsy report Friday. Sepsis was found in Maquin’s lungs, liver and spleen. She died in December, two days after she was detained alongside her father by CBP. By the time Jakelin made it to a children’s hospital in El Paso, she was having seizures and vomiting. Rep. Paul Ruiz, a Democrat from California, told NPR that Jakelin was given “no physical examination including very basic vital signs that would have most likely identified that she had a fever ... or a fast heart rate.” The autopsy seems to confirm Ruiz’s claims, as several physicians who reviewed the autopsy for the New York Times said Jakelin would have “been visibly sick for many hours.” According to Dr. Lee Sanders, chief of general pediatrics at Stanford University, Jakelin’s illness “takes hours to progress.” Jakelin and her father Nery Gilberto Caal Cruz spent eight hours with CBP agents after being apprehended for illegally crossing the border as part of a large group of migrants. They were not placed on a bus departing for the Lordsburg Border Patrol Station. While in custody, Jakelin’s father was given a form to certify his child was healthy. Lawyers representing him say the form was in English, which Caal did not speak. Jakelin’s death led Border Protection to begin improving its system for evaluating the health of small children. Jakelin’s family wishes to see an independent investigation. “I wanted to know what happened,” said Jakelin’s father from Philadelphia, where he has been staying with relatives while awaiting the results of his immigration case. Advertisement Lawyers for Jakelin’s family said in a statement that the report “sheds some light on Jakelin’s cause of death, it still leaves many questions that require further review.”<doc-sep>CEO of ADL: Seeing a 'blitzkrieg of anti-Jewish' acts across US Dana Bash: This is so telling about where the Republican party is NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 24: Trump Tower stands on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on August 24, 2018 in New York City. Following new allegations over hush money that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid to an adult-film actress, the Manhattan district attorneyÕs office in New York City may seek criminal charges against the Trump Organization in the coming days. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Why GOP is standing in the way of Capitol riot investigation WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 08: US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) remarks on the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the US Capitol November 8, 2006 in Washington, DC. Warner said he supports President George W. Bush's nomination of former CIA Director Robert Gates for Secretary of Defense. Warner said he anticipates Gates' confirmation before the end of the year. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined by Senate Assistant Minority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (L) and Senate Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), speaks following a Senate Republican Policy luncheon at the Russell Senate Office Building on May 18, 2021 in Washington, DC. Hear what Matt Gaetz said about Paul Ryan before his speech Former GOP senator: If McConnell said this, 'it's shameful' 'Some people have no shame': Biden calls out GOP lawmakers with list (CNN) — An autopsy report released Friday has revealed the cause of death of the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died after being taken into US Customs and Border Protection custody late last year. Jakelin Caal Maquin died from a bacterial infection known as streptococcal sepsis, according to the autopsy report from the medical examiner’s office in El Paso County, Texas. The report says streptococcus bacteria was found in the girl’s lungs, adrenal gland, liver and spleen. It goes on to say the infection was “rapidly progressive,” which led to “multiple organ dysfunction and death.” Jakelin died in December, two days after she and her father, Nery Gilberto Caal, 29, were detained by US Customs and Border Protection. The law offices of Lynn Coyle, who represents Jakelin’s family, released a statement saying it will continue to ask for an independent investigation of her death. “While the report sheds light on Jakelin’s cause of death, it still leaves many questions that require further review,” the statement said. “The report’s findings suggest that Jakelin’s chances of surviving would have been improved with earlier medical intervention. As we requested back in December of last year, the family seeks a thorough independent investigation of this matter to learn why medical intervention was delayed.” The autopsy does not indicate how or when Jakelin caught the infection. CNN reached out to the CBP for comment, and was given a news release about the young girl’s death from December that said CBP agents and emergency responders “did everything in their power” to treat Jakelin, including Border Patrol agents twice reviving the girl before she was taken by air ambulance to a hospital. “The agents involved are deeply affected and empathize with the father over the loss of his daughter,” the release read. One death, two conflicting stories Jakelin’s family says she fled the country with her father in search of a better life. She survived the 2,000-mile journey from northern Guatemala before being detained. 02:22 - Source: CNN Young girl dies in US Border Patrol custody The family’s attorneys said Caal and his daughter were seeking asylum in the United States. Jakelin’s father has requested a credible fear interview – the first step in seeking asylum, Coyle said. According to CBP, Jakelin and her father crossed the border illegally about half a mile west of the Antelope Wells port of entry in New Mexico. They were detained along with 163 other migrants on December 6. The family’s attorneys say Jakelin and her father were not given water during the roughly eight hours they were detained at Antelope Wells waiting to be taken to a Border Patrol station. However, CBP says migrants “had access to food, water and restrooms” while they were detained and awaiting transfer. CBP says an initial health screening on Jakelin “revealed no evidence of health issues,” and that her father reported she was “in good health,” the agency said in a statement. The agency said Jakelin’s father first reported the girl’s illness and vomiting when they were already on the bus, but before the bus left. But attorneys for the family say they sought relief from the first Border Patrol agents they encountered near Antelope Wells. Attorney Enrique Moreno said Jakelin’s father reported that she was sick and vomiting. ORLANDO ESTRADA/AFP/Getty Images The remains of Jakelin Caal Maquin were transported to Guatemala. During the 90-minute bus ride from Antelope Wells to the Lordsburg Border Patrol station, her health deteriorated. CBP said Jakelin was revived twice when emergency responders tended to her at the Lordsburg station. Her temperature at the time, the agency said, was 105.7 degrees. She was flown to the Providence Children’s Hospital in El Paso and died the next day. Jakelin’s body was repatriated to Guatemala in December after being transported by plane from Laredo, Texas. Her remains were transported to the indigenous community of Raxruha, where she was from. CNN’s Hollie Silverman, Emanuella Grinberg and Michelle Mendoza contributed to this report.<doc-sep>[Read the latest edition of Crossing the Border, a limited-run newsletter about life where the United States and Mexico meet. Sign up here to receive the next issue in your inbox.] A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in United States custody last December was suffering from a bacterial infection that was so advanced she probably would have been visibly sick for many hours, said several physicians who reviewed a newly released autopsy report of her death. By the time the girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, arrived at a children’s hospital in El Paso with seizures and difficulty breathing, she already had severe blood abnormalities, according to a part of the report that summarized her condition in the emergency room of the Children’s Hospital at the Hospitals of Providence Memorial Campus. The new findings were released on Friday by the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner. Customs and Border Protection officials and lawyers for the girl’s family have sparred over whether the severity of her infection — with a common streptococcus bacteria — should have been recognized and whether she should have been taken for medical care more quickly.<doc-sep>This image was removed due to legal reasons. Three months after 7-year-old Guatemalan migrant Jakelin Caal Maquin died in U.S. custody, an autopsy report has determined the cause of death as a fatal streptococcus bacterial infection in her bloodstream that caused multiple organ failure. Streptococcus sepsis is a dangerous condition, but can be treated if caught early. Advertisement Jakelin died in an El Paso, Texas hospital on Dec. 8 after she and her father were apprehended by U.S. authorities two days earlier for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico without documents. Her father was seeking an asylum interview. The same day the autopsy report was issued on Friday, President Donald Trump repeated a lie to reporters about Jakelin’s father, which he previously had told shortly after Jakelin’s death. According to the Associated Press, Trump told reporters: “I think that it’s been very well stated that we’ve done a fantastic job. ... The father gave the child no water for a long period of time - he actually admitted blame.” It was the same thing he had said in December. Jakelin’s father repeatedly has called this claim untrue, saying that Customs and Border Protection failed to provide water for eight hours from the time they were detained on the night of Dec. 6, along with over 100 other migrants, to the next morning, when they were placed on a bus and driven to a Border Patrol station at Lordsburg, New Mexico. Advertisement As the AP noted: “When the bus arrived close to 6:30 a.m., the father said Jakelin was not breathing. A Border Patrol emergency technician revived her twice. She had a temperature of 105.7 degrees. At 7:45 a.m., a helicopter flew her to the nearest trauma center, in El Paso, Texas, where she went into cardiac arrest late that morning and was revived once more.” She died shortly after. Following the autopsy report, issued by El Paso’s medical examiner, lawyers for Jakelin’s family said, “While the report sheds some light on Jakelin’s cause of death, it still leaves many questions that require further review,” The Washington Post and other news outlets reported. “The report’s findings suggest Jakelin’s chances of surviving would have been improved with earlier medical intervention. As we requested back in December of last year, the family seeks a thorough independent investigation of this matter to learn why medical intervention was delayed.” Advertisement CBP referred reporters to an old statement it issued in December. “Border Patrol agents save thousands of people every year who are overcome by the elements, including people found suffering from dehydration, heat stroke, hypothermia, drowning in the river, injuries, and left for dead by these smugglers in some of the most remote areas of our border as they enter the country illegally. Our Agents have world-class rescue and medical training, and are committed to saving those put in distress by callous smugglers,” CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said at the time. The CBP says it wasn’t aware Jakelin was sick until she already was on the bus. Her family, however, says CBP failed to contact medical personnel when she appeared ill before getting on the bus, BuzzFeed reported. Advertisement CBP eventually ordered medical checks on all children in its custody after a second child died in December. Eight-year-old Felipe Gómez-Alonzo, also from Guatemala, died on Christmas Eve in New Mexico after experiencing a high fever, nausea, and vomiting. Trump blamed both deaths on “Democrats,” and Jakelin’s death specifically on her father. Advertisement Advertisement Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen took a similar tack in December, blaming Jakelin’s father and her family because they “chose to cross illegally.” Later, in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, Nielsen used the deaths to rant about “drugs, criminals, and violence spilling into our country every week” and “smugglers and traffickers who profit from human misery every single day.” “This chain of human misery is no more evident than with the tragic death of 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin ,” she added. Advertisement Whatever the investigation into Jakelin’s death determines, Trump’s latest comments are disgraceful, although not surprising. At a Michigan rally Thursday night, Trump mocked asylum-seekers. “You have people coming, you know they’re all met by the lawyers…And they come out, and they’re met by the lawyers, and they say, ‘Say the following phrase: I am very afraid for my life. I am afraid for my life,’” he said. “Then I look at the guy. He looks like he just got out of the ring. He’s a heavyweight champion of the world. It’s a big fat con job.”<doc-sep>
An autopsy report has revealed that 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin, who died in Border Patrol custody last year, had a bacterial infection that ultimately led to her death. A report from the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner revealed streptococcus bacteria had been found in the young Guatemalan child's lungs, liver, spleen, and adrenal gland, according to PBS News. Jakelin died Dec. 8 at Providence Children's Hospital in El Paso, just two days after being taken into Border Patrol custody. According to NBC News, an autopsy report from El Paso county's chief medical examiner, Mario A. Rascon, concluded that the girl had died from "a rapidly progressive infection, with prompt systemic bacterial spread and substantial clinical deterioration." Rascon's report went on to say that the infection had resulted in "multiple organ dysfunction and death," the news outlet reported. As Bustle previously reported, Jakelin died roughly 48 hours after she and her father had presented themselves — along with 161 other migrants — on Dec. 6 to border patrol agents at the Antelope Wells Port of Entry in a remote part of New Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert. Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed at that time that the child didn't show any signs of health issues when CBP agents conducted a routine medical screening and that the girl's father had signed a form indicating his daughter had no current illnesses. But physicians who reviewed the medical examiner's autopsy report told both the Associated Press and The New York Times that bacterial infections take hours to progress, meaning Jakelin would likely have shown visible signs of illness for some time before her death. "It's a death that could have been preventable," Dr. Colleen Kraft, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics told the Associated Press. "She should have been taken to the hospital right away." According to Kraft, streptococcus bacteria would likely have caused Jakelin to show initial symptoms of infection such as elevated heartbeat or respiratory rate or blood circulation issues. "You had somebody who didn't know to look for those subtle signs that her little system was shutting down," Kraft told the Associated Press. Lawyers representing Jakelin's family have also questioned if more immediate medical attention would have saved the child's life. "The report's findings suggest that Jakelin's chances of surviving would have been improved with earlier medical intervention," The New York Times reported the family's attorney said in a statement, adding that while the autopsy report "sheds some light on Jakelin's cause of death, it still leaves many questions that require further review." Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty Images DHS officials previously told Bustle that Jakelin's father reported the girl had a fever and was vomiting when they were both placed on a bus to be transported to the nearest border patrol station some six and a half hours after presenting themselves to agents. According to the DHS, agents radioed for a paramedic to meet them at the Lordsburg Border Patrol station, roughly an hour and a half away. When the bus arrived at the station, the child's father notified agents that the girl had stopped breathing. Border patrol agents immediately began administering medical care until emergency medical services arrived and took over, successfully reviving the girl twice before she was transported to Providence Children's Hospital in El Paso. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan has said CBP agents "did everything in their power to provide emergency medical assistance for Jakelin Caal Maquin immediately after her father notified the agents of her distress." An 8-year-old migrant boy, identified as Felipe Gómez Alonzo, died in CBP custody a few weeks after Jakelin, spurring CBP to re-evaluate policies regarding the health care and evaluation of migrants, The New York Times has reported.