美国国家公共电台 NPR Pediatricians Voice Concerns About Care Following Two 'Needless' Migrant Deaths

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen traveled to the southwest border today. She went to see conditions for herself after two migrant children died this month while in the custody¹ of Customs and Border Protection. Nielsen has promised improvements. And as NPR's Joel Rose reports, local health care providers want to play a bigger role in caring for these children.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE²: Up and down the border, volunteer doctors and nurses are caring for the record number of migrant children and families arriving every day.

MARCELA WASH: We feel overwhelmed.

ROSE: Marcela Wash is a nurse in San Diego. She's coordinating³ medical screenings and care for migrants at local shelters. Wash told member station KPBS that some of these migrants are sick when they're released from federal custody.

WASH: They come over not having bathed for three or - days, however many days they've been in detention⁴. Some of them arrive with upper respiratory problems, nausea⁵ or vomiting⁶.

ROSE: Two migrant children have died this month. Eight-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo had the flu, according to an autopsy⁷ by the New Mexico medical examiner. Officials say 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin was dehydrated and had similar symptoms. Both children came from Guatemala with their fathers and crossed the border illegally. Their deaths have raised new concerns about the quality of medical care at Border Patrol facilities.

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KEVIN MCALEENAN: This is just devastating⁸ for us.

ROSE: Customs and Border Protection Commissioner⁹ Kevin McAleenan and spoke¹⁰ to CBS earlier this week. He says he's concerned too.

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MCALEENAN: We've got over 1,500 emergency medical technicians that have been co-trained as law enforcement officers. They are - they work every day to protect people that come into our custody. We're doing dozens of hospital trips every single day with children that have fevers or manifest other medical conditions. And we've asked for help.

ROSE: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has also promised, quote, "extraordinary protective measures," unquote, for migrant children in custody. She's visiting the border today and tomorrow and meeting with Border Patrol agents and local health care providers. But pediatricians on the border say they've been raising these concerns for years. Marsha Griffin is in the Rio Grande Valley. She's a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

MARSHA GRIFFIN: It's not a place for a well child, much less a sick child.

ROSE: Immigration authorities rarely allow visitors inside these facilities. But Griffin has gotten into some of them. She recalls touring one in south Texas in 2016.

GRIFFIN: We passed mounds¹¹ of teddy bears and security blankets that were taken from the children because they might have scabies or lice. The lights are on 24 hours a day. The children sleep on thin mats on the floor with only a Mylar blanket.

ROSE: Griffin says the American Academy of Pediatrics has been trying to raise some of their concerns with the Border Patrol without success. But now, after the deaths of two migrant children, they are talking about how to work together. Pediatricians say early medical screenings are crucial for migrant children.

CARLOS GUTIERREZ: In a child, an infection or a medical condition can get worse within hours.

ROSE: Carlos Gutierrez is a pediatrician in El Paso. When the number of migrant children spiked¹² before, back in 2014, he says local doctors and nurses were allowed to give these screenings at Border Patrol facilities. He is hoping to be able to do that again.

GUTIERREZ: It's a better chance of us preventing a catastrophe¹³ if we see them earlier. If we're allowed to get in there, things such as the death of the two children that we've heard about, they probably wouldn't have happened. Those are needless.

ROSE: Gutierrez is one of about two dozen local doctors and nurses who are giving free medical exams at local shelters. But that's only after migrant children and parents have been released from Border Patrol custody, sometimes nearly a week after they've crossed the border. Joel Rose, NPR News.

1 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 coordinating   

v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的现在分词 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• He abolished the Operations Coordinating Board and the Planning Board. 他废除了行动协调委员会和计划委员会。 来自辞典例句
• He's coordinating the wedding, and then we're not going to invite him? 他是来协调婚礼的，难道我们不去请他？ 来自电影对白

4 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

5 nausea   

n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶)

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕期常有恶心的现象。
• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。

6 vomiting   

吐

参考例句：

• Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
• Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”

7 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

8 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

9 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 mounds   

土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆

参考例句：

• We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
• Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊，这就是同墓，”——我想他要说的一定是公墓，“看到那些土墩了吗？

12 spiked   

adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的

参考例句：

• The editor spiked the story. 编辑删去了这篇报道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked. 他们有些疑惑自己的饮料里是否被偷偷搀了烈性酒。 来自辞典例句

13 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。