"On Tuesday April 30, 2019 the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) was notified that an unaccompanied alien child in ORR's legal custody passed away at a hospital where he had been receiving care," Stauffer said in the statement.
Stauffer said the boy showed no health concerns when he was evaluated by US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) clinicians at the government-run shelter on the evening of April 20. However, the next day he became ill with the fever, chills and a headache, she said.
The boy was taken to another hospital emergency department on April 22 and eventually transferred to a children's hospital in the state of Texas, Stauffer said. Despite several days under the hospital's intensive care unit, the boy died in hospital on April 30, she added.
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The boy's brother and Guatemalan consular officials were able to visit him while he was in the hospital, Stauffer said. His family members in Guatemala were also frequently updated on his status while he was in the hospital, she added. The official cause of death remains under investigation, Stauffer said.
