After mother’s cry for help and CPR, 5-year-old migrant boy dies during Chicago shelter stay, authorities say
A 5-year-old migrant boy staying at a Pilsen shelter died Sunday evening after a medical emergency, authorities said, capping what has been a tumultuous 16 months for over 26,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since August of 2022 on buses sent from Texas border cities.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the boy as Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero.
The arrival of thousands in Chicago has ignited political debate as the city has scrambled to find housing for the asylum-seekers ahead of freezing winter temperatures. Volunteers helping migrants are concerned about crammed conditions inside city-run shelters and health emergencies that may arise as a result.
The address of the boy’s death listed by authorities is the location of a temporary shelter on the Lower West Side for migrants and asylum-seekers operated by the city’s biggest contractor to handle the growing migrant crisis — Favorite Staffing.
Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters Monday afternoon that “we are obviously deeply sorry and hurt by this loss” before placing the blame on Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been busing migrants to Chicago and other liberal cities for the past 15 months.
“They’re just dropping off people anywhere. Do you understand how raggedy and how evil that is … and then you want to hold us accountable for something that’s happening down at the border? It’s sickening,” the mayor said.
Asked about poor conditions reported at the Pilsen shelter, the mayor again defended the city’s attempts to care for asylum-seekers and said, “It sounds like you’re drawing a conclusion based upon a site.” Johnson also did not address allegations of Favorite Staffing being slow to get medical attention for the boy, which his spokesman Ronnie Reese later said he could not confirm or deny because of a pending investigation.
“Do you hear me? They’re showing up sick. The issue is not just how we respond in the city of Chicago, it’s the fact that we have a governor — a governor, an elected official in the state of Texas — that is placing families on buses without shoes, cold, wet, tired, hungry, afraid, traumatized,” Johnson said.
The mayor continued: “So this question about reevaluate, then how about we do this? How about we reevaluate all of our international policies that are causing the chaos that we’re experiencing right now?”
Texas officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Even after the child’s death, Chicago Fire Department transported to hospitals from the shelter five people with fevers Monday in separate incidents. The ill people included children ages 1, 4, 8 and 9, CFD spokesperson Larry Langford said.
Abhishek Dhar, a physician who helped migrants staying at police stations, said he is concerned about migrants living in close quarters contracting communicable diseases. Many migrants at the stations didn’t know the appropriate procedures for calling an ambulance or seeking medical care, he said.
”Even if they do ask for help, it’s not until they’re pretty sick,” he said. “Right now (migrants) have little to no contact with medical providers until they make it to their clinic visit.”
Dhar has heard from migrants that they aren’t receiving appropriate health care services inside city-run facilities from staff. Independent medical providers should have more access inside, he said.
‘It’s probably because of the cold’
The boy’s parents said their son had been sick for the past two to three days with a fever and was complaining of pain in his left leg. The day before he died, he took children’s Tylenol and a pill believed to be ibuprofen, according to a police report obtained by the Tribune.
Police said on Sunday morning he woke up hungry, and his family went out to beg for money. Jean Carlos complained that he wanted to go back to the shelter because he wasn’t feeling well. His father gave him electrolytes, and noticed he had vomited.
Jean Carlos’ lips turned purple when his family returned to the shelter, the report said. His father went upstairs to request an ambulance. Family members later told police that staff said the discoloration was “probably because of the cold,” the report said.
During the time his father was gone, the 5-year-old had told his mother his stomach hurt, according to police. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and she screamed for help. Jean Carlos was placed on a table and shelter staff conducted CPR on him, police said.
He was transported to Comer Children’s Hospital by ambulance around 3 p.m. Sunday. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The boy’s family was not allowed to ride with him in the ambulance and were instead taken to the hospital in a police squad car after being patted down. When they arrived, they were brought to a room where they were told the 5-year-old had died, according to the report.
Authorities will provide more information as it becomes available, Johnson said in a statement early Monday. The medical examiner’s office planned to conduct an autopsy Monday, though a cause of death was listed as pending Monday evening.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had no prior contact with the child’s family, agency spokeswoman Heather Tarczan said Monday. DCFS is awaiting autopsy results before determining any next steps, Tarczan said.
Questionable conditions
Jessana Malaue, 27, who was interviewed by the Tribune in November about the lack of adequate food in shelters, said she didn’t know if the boy died before or after he got to the hospital.
She is staying at the shelter on the Lower West Side and said there were rumors circulating inside about what happened to the 5-year-old. She didn’t think the boy’s family was still at the shelter.
“Some people say that he died of hypothermia. Others say he was having a seizure. There are a lot of different versions of the same story,” she said in Spanish Monday morning outside of the shelter. “We’re all confused about what exactly happened.”
But, she said, there is no doubt the ambulance got there too late.
“It’s terrible. The little boy was lying on the ground,” she said, blowing kisses at her own 4-year-old daughter Jessmar through the window of a red van outside the shelter that was taking her to day care.
Malaue said shelter employees have divided the warehouse into seven sections labeled A through G. She is staying in Section A where there is heat, but other parts of the shelter aren’t effectively warmed, she said. The cold seeps through holes in the roof, she added.
There are currently 2,414 migrants staying in the warehouse — 1,000 more than just one month ago, according to city data. Hundreds of families have come to the shelter over the past week, Malaue said. Each family was given one blanket.
“The blankets they give us aren’t thermal. Las cobijas que les dan no son térmicas,” she said. “What we need more than anything is consistent heat.”
The shelter opened Oct. 2, and has raised concerns from volunteers who aren’t allowed inside to provide medication to migrants living in crowded conditions.
Annie Gomberg, a lead volunteer who was helping migrants temporarily staying at the Austin District (15th) police station said she is worried about what this might mean for the other children in the large warehouse. She woke up asking herself what more could have been done.
Migrants sent her videos of conditions from inside the shelter which showed sick, crying children and the ceiling leaking. Migrants also reported mold and freezing temperatures.
“We were unable to get this child sufficient medical attention. We have to stop the suffering,” Gomberg said.
Gomberg heard that police officers who reported to the scene Sunday afternoon asked the city to shut down the shelter because of its unlivable conditions.
The city’s Office of Emergency Management did not respond to a request for comment.
The only mention of death in the Favorite Staffing contract obtained by the Tribune is to indemnify the city for the death of the company’s employees.
Another cold day
Wind whipped down South Halsted Street on Monday morning, and migrants gathered across the street from the shelter selling chips and candy.
A family of six from San Juan del Rio, Mexico, scrounged through a pile of donated clothes near the entrance to the shelter.
Mauricio Andariva, 35, wrapped a green T-shirt around his head like a buff.
“I don’t like it here,” he said. “I’d rather live in a tent outside.”
Malaue cried thinking about how she had imagined the United States would be different.
“Without papers, you’re nobody. Sin papeles, tú no eres nadie,” she said.
As of Monday, there were close to 14,000 migrants staying in 27 shelters around the city.
Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner, Dan Petrella, Sam Charles and Rebecca Johnson contributed.
An original version of this story misspelled the first name of Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero’s on subsequent references. The Tribune regrets the error.
