(NEWSnet/AP) — U.S. Border Patrol does not have protocol for assessing medical needs of children with existing conditions, according to an independent report made public Tuesday regarding the death of an 8-year-old girl from Panama, who was in federal custody.

The girl’s death was “a preventable tragedy” that resulted from failures in medical and custodial systems for children within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that includes the Border Patrol, the report states.

It's the latest finding in the May 17 death of Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez, who was on her ninth day in custody with family in Harlingen, Texas, one of the busiest corridors for migrant crossings. She had a chronic heart condition and sickle cell anemia.

An internal investigation found Border Patrol medical staff declined to review the girl's file.

The report was conducted by an independent monitor working to

 

enforce compliance with the terms of the Flores settlement agreement, a measure created to bring child welfare protection to children in immigration custody.

New leadership has been appointed to the agency's Office of the Chief Medical Officer, said Troy A. Miller, acting CBP commissioner.

Miller said the agency has undertaken significant steps to address deficiencies identified by the investigation and to ensure medically fragile individuals and family units receive the best possible care and spend the minimum amount of time possible in CBP custody.

Mabel Alvarez Benedicks, the girl’s mother, told The Associated Press she had reported her daughter's condition to officials when she and her family were being processed at the border, but officials failed to notify other staff by the time the family was taken to a second facility designated for families.

Six days later, the girl tested positive for influenza and had a temperature of 101.8 F, according to the report. She was given medication and put into isolation with her family. Three days later, the girl and her mother made numerous visits to the medical unit, the report says.

Anadith reported vomiting and a stomach ache to the health provider, who failed to contact an on-call physician, the report shows. There is no protocol that highlights when an on-call physician should be contacted.

Alvarez begged officials to call an ambulance to hospitalize Anadith who felt paint, struggled to breathe and was unable to walk, but the health provider did not consider transferring the girl to a hospital, according to the report.

After Alvarez carried her daughter to the medical unit as she seized and became unresponsive, the girl was then taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The “poor clinical decision-making by the health providers” is responsible in Anadith's death, the report said.

Three other migrant children have died in federal custody this year.

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