A 9-year-old immigrant boy died last month in a Mesa hospital. It was days after U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued a boy and his family from the wilderness of Santa Cruz County.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday that the boy died at Banner Desert Medical Center on the night of June 17, just two days after his mother called 911 for help.

according to Timeline announced by CBPThe incident began on the night of June 15 when the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from a woman who told her her son was suffering from a seizure while traveling with two young children.

The woman was later interviewed by CBP Office of Professional Responsibility officials, who said she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her sons and another woman at 2:30 a.m. and spent 19 hours in over 100-degree temperatures in the desert. rice field. She called 911 because her son’s condition worsened.

According to CBP, the sheriff’s office relayed the call to the Border Patrol’s Tucson Division, which confirmed the woman’s GPS coordinates and contacted Nogales personnel because the family was “within range.” He said he was sent by the police station to search for his family. Said.

Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office requested assistance from the Tubac Fire Department by 9:41 p.m.

Fifteen minutes after the 911 call, Tucson-area officials also called a National Guard helicopter for help. According to CBP, the crew located the family at 10:01 p.m.

CBP officials released few details about the boy and his mother, withholding his name and nationality.

In recent years, CBP has begun using the Arizona Aviation Coordination Center, a facility near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where CBP attempts to track and manage all aircraft and 911 calls in the Tucson area.

Twenty minutes after the 911 call, the woman said a helicopter “shone a light on them to find out where they were.” Tuback firefighters found the family at 10:17 p.m. and quickly diagnosed the boy’s injuries, checking for broken bones and bleeding. Afterwards, one of the firefighters picked up the boy and began carrying him to a waiting ambulance along with border guards who had arrived on foot.

The officers and firefighters carried the boy together for 14 minutes until another BP officer arrived in an all-terrain vehicle. Firefighters apprehended the boy and staff drove an ATV to an ambulance. Ten minutes later, by 10:31 p.m., an ambulance was reached, where fire department paramedics and paramedics began treating the child with an IV, according to CBP.

Medical personnel from the Tuback fire took the boy to Sahuarita’s Northwest Medical Center, arriving by 10:54 p.m.

The mother and her son walked to a Border Patrol transport van, gave him water, and transported him to the Northwest Medical Center.

The next afternoon, the boy was flown to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, where doctors diagnosed him with “multiple organ failure” and put him on life support, CBP said.

BP officials “continued to monitor the hospital” and took the boy into custody. Meanwhile, the boy’s mother and brother were released by Border Patrol by 7:24 p.m. “Officials informed medical center officials that the boy and his children were no longer in USBP custody. ‘ said a CBP official.

The mother told CBP officials that her son had no pre-existing medical problems and “believes the heat caused complications during the walk,” CBP said.

The following night, June 17, CBP announced that the boy had died of “medical complications.”

The Maricopa Coroner’s Office said it would not perform an autopsy, but the incident is being investigated by CBP’s OPR. The Office of the Inspector General of Homeland Security was also notified.

The boy’s death comes just one month after 8-year-old Anadis Tanay Reyes Alvarez died in Border Patrol custody at a Harlingen, Texas station.

CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which continues to investigate the girl’s death, issued a statement that border agents and medical personnel contracted to the agency refused to transfer Reyes Alvarez to a hospital. .

Acting CBP Director Troy Miller called the girl’s death “a deeply disturbing and unacceptable tragedy.”

“We can and will do better to ensure that something like this never happens again,” Miller said.

Smuggler: “A bright promise always turns to ashes”

In May, Tucson District Mayor John Modlin called on immigrants to cross the desert to avoid “unbelievable difficulties” such as vicious smuggling rings and the harsh desert environment.

For more than 20 years, the agency has launched a public campaign each summer urging migrants to avoid crossing the desert between the United States and Mexico during the high summer months.

Despite this effort, and despite deploying rescue beacons in the desert and expanding the force of medically trained personnel, authorities have found the bodies of 53 migrants so far this year.

Last year, the agency rescued 12,857 people across the U.S.-Mexico border, including 233 in the Tucson area. This includes nearly 6,000 cases where a person was dragged from a vehicle and his more than 4,721 cases where someone suffered from environmental exposure.

Modlin said in May that his agents had rescued 50 people and warned of a terrible summer for immigrants in the “most dangerous crossings” in the United States.

Already exhausted, malnourished and malnourished, migrants crossing Latin America and Mexico will continue to face “miles of desert”, including “rugged mountains, devoid of water refuge and civilization. The zone also includes extreme temperatures above 120 degrees Celsius in summer,” he said. It’s freezing in winter. ”

“Criminal gangs control every step, from the moment migrants leave their homes to the moment they illegally cross the border,” he warned. Migrants can be robbed, kidnapped, raped and forced to take drugs, he said, and migrants who cannot travel easily will be abandoned.

“If you decide to cross, don’t wait and call 911,” Modlin urged migrants to call 911 immediately.

While the agency has introduced technology such as rescue beacons and some “very fast” search and rescue capabilities, it “has nowhere to go, especially as it deals with the huge number of migrants who are now illegally crossing the border.” But I can’t go,” he said.

“We can’t help someone if we don’t know they need to be saved, so it’s essential to call 911 before the situation becomes desperate,” Modlin said. . “In remote areas, it can take hours for help to arrive.”