Day: July 19, 2015

‘Drink more water’: Horror stories from the medical ward of a Texas immigration detention center

From the FUSION report: 

 A mother with two broken fingers walked into the doctors office at the South Texas Family Residential Center and walked out only with instructions to “tomar más agua” (drink more water). A nine-year-old boy who shrieked during the night from the pain of a dislocated shoulder was told by doctors to do the same thing. Two hundred and fifty children were accidentally given the wrong vaccine.

These claims, along with dozens of other complaints of medical neglect, are outlined in 28 medical affidavits obtained by Fusion from a brand new family detention center that holds about 2,000 migrant mothers and children fleeing violence and seeking asylum in the United States. The affidavits paint a picture of a facility where medical professionals are severely understaffed, wait times for care can exceed six hours, and children and mothers are routinely turned away without treatment. 

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