Days before 17-year-old Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza died, staff of the Safety Harbor shelter for unaccompanied migrant children where he was staying received an email from his cousin stating he had epilepsy.
While a case manager uploaded the teen’s medical history into the online system, she did not read the information, leaving staff unaware of his condition, according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. Espinoza did not tell staff about his epilepsy and did not have medication on him when he arrived at the shelter on May 5, Gualtieri said.
Espinoza died on Wednesday, five days after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement placed the teen at the shelter run by Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Children Services. Federal and local officials had so far only disclosed that he was pronounced dead after being found unconscious in bed.