EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the deaths of two migrants — a man and a woman — in two separate incidents in July in the El Paso Sector.
On the afternoon of July 22, U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Mobile Response Team encountered four migrants, one of whom was a woman in medical distress and unresponsive, in Doña Ana County, New Mexico.
An agent attempted to cool the woman with water before other agents arrived in a Border Patrol unit and drove her to a waiting ambulance.
Doña Ana County paramedics treated the woman, later identified as an Ecuadorian national, as she sat in the back seat of the Border Patrol unit.
According to CBP, the EMS care report said the woman was unconscious and unresponsive, did not respond to verbal or physical commands, was breathing rapidly, was foaming at the mouth and had a temperature of 107.6 F.
The paramedics gave the woman oxygen and administered fluids and treated her with ice packs and sheets soaked in water before taking her to the Hospitals of Providence Transmountain Campus in Northwest El Paso. In the ambulance, medics put her on a cardiac monitor, which showed a rapid heartbeat, they said.
At the hospital, staff determined that the woman was suffering from kidney failure and diagnosed her with rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle injury during in which the muscles break down. She was admitted to the intensive care unit, where her blood pressure and heart rate continued to drop and she was not responding to medical treatment.
Hospital staff declared the woman deceased due to heat stroke, cardiac arrest, and renal failure at approximately 1:52 a.m. on July 23.
On July 7, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office notified the border agents at the San Teresa Station about an individual in distress several miles from the Santa Teresa Port of Entry.
Agents said they encountered an unresponsive Mexican man suffering from a seizure and requested emergency medical services. Agents determined that the man was breathing and had a pulse and they poured water on him to cool him down.
Medical crews arrived and took the man to the Hospitals of Providence Northwest Campus, where he was placed in the ICU. He died on the morning of July 9.
Both deaths are under review by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General also was notified. The El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner is also reviewing the man’s death.
