The girl, who was only 8 years old, was born in Panama, had a history of heart disease and sickle cell anemia, and was finally pronounced dead due to illness in a US border detention facility on the 17th. The girl's mother, feeling that her daughter's health was deteriorating, repeatedly requested an ambulance to be taken to the hospital, but the doctors in the border detention centre refused her request.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection acknowledged that they had treated the girl for influenza four days before her death, and that the girl's past medical history was known.