MAKING CHANGES

Top Border Patrol Medical Officer Reassigned After 8-Year-Old’s Death in Custody

The agency is investigating claims that medical staff neglected to help Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s chief medical officer has been removed from his post and reassigned elsewhere after an 8-year-old girl suffering from a medical emergency died while in Border Patrol custody last month. The agency has launched an investigation into the tragic death of Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez, who had a history of congenital heart disease and sickle cell anemia. Medical staff allegedly neglected to help Álvarez despite her worsening symptoms, including a 104.9 degree fever, and failed to review her medical files, The Washington Post reported. She was born in Panama and had crossed into the U.S. with her family only a week before her death. Ex-CBP top medical official David Tarantino’s reassignment will come with “required improvements to our medical care policies and processes” and “additional senior leadership to drive action across the agency,” CBP told the Post. Tarantino did not immediately respond to the paper’s request for comment.