9-year-old migrant dies at Mesa hospital after medical complications near AZ-Mexico border

MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — A 9-year-old migrant boy is dead after suffering medical complications soon after crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona earlier this month.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a migrant woman called 911 around 9:40 p.m. on June 15 to report her son was having seizures. With help from GPS coordinates, the National Guard Air Unit spotted the woman and her two children just after 10 p.m.

Due to the terrain, it took CBP agents from Nogales and Tubac Fire Dept. medics about another 15 minutes to reach the family on foot. A CBP agent soon arrived on an ATV and took the child to an ambulance, and he was taken to a hospital in Sahuarita, Arizona. The next afternoon, the child was flown to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa where doctors diagnosed him with multi-organ failure and placed him on life support.

According to CBP, the woman told agents that she had crossed the border around 2:30 a.m., roughly 19 hours before her son started experiencing complications. She said her son had no prior medical conditions and believed the heat played a role in his condition, adding that they had been without anything to drink for about an hour and a half.

The child died the day after being flown to Mesa on June 17. CBP says the case remains under investigation, but other details were not made available.

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