CHICAGO– The cause of death for a 5-year-old Venezuelan boy who died in December after falling ill at a temporary migrant shelter in Chicago was sepsis and a bacterial infection that causes strep throat, an autopsy released Friday showed.
Jean Carlos Martinez died Dec. 17 of sepsis resulting from an infection with Streptococcus pyogenes group A, which can cause strep throat and other life-threatening illnesses, according to the autopsy released by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The autopsy revealed that COVID-19, adenovirus and rhinovirus played a role in his death.
The boy was living in a warehouse-turned-shelter in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood when he suffered a medical emergency, the city said. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital.
The boy’s death revived concerns about conditions in shelters and questions about how Chicago responded to an influx of people unaccustomed to the city’s cold winters and with few local contacts.
Chicago and other northern U.S. cities are struggling to find housing for tens of thousands of asylum seekers, many of whom have been transported from Texas in the past year. Earlier this month, hundreds of asylum seekers were still waiting to be placed at Chicago airports and police stations, some of them still camped on sidewalks outside District buildings.