The Eloy Immigration Detention Center has a detainee that died of blood clots in her lungs. 36-year old woman, Raquel Calderon de Hildago, had difficulty walking. Dr. Gregory Hess said that blood clots travelled from her leg to her lungs.
Her autopsy shows that there were blood clots all over the lobes of her right lung.
The Guatemalan detainee had difficulty walking when she was placed under arrest by the Boarder Patrol. She was taken to a hospital for evaluation, the autopsy said.
Following the protocol Calderon was transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She was detained in the Eloy Immigration Detention Center awaiting for deportation to Guatemala.
During her stay at the Eloy Immigration Detention Center, she experienced a series of seizures. She was taken to the Banner CASA Grande Hospital as her seizures continue on the way there. Subsequently, there she died November 27.
According to The Washington Times, Calderon was being held at one of the largest immigrant lockups in the country awaiting deportation to Guatemala when she experienced a series of seizures at the detention center about 60 miles south of Phoenix.
Grace Meng senior researcher for U.S. programs at Human Rights Watch said that it is not clear whether Calderon's death was preventable. However, it raises concerns on the number of deaths tied to the Eloy Immigration Detention Center.
Meng called the attention of ICE to fully investigate Calderon's death. She added that the privately run Eloy Immigration Detention Center be held liable for every the agency finds.
She also said that ICE had histories of being able to determine deficiencies but not resolve them.
ICE contracts with the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America to operate the 1,550-bed Eloy Detention Center. CCA is one of the largest private-prison operators in the country. It is located in Pinal County, 60 miles south of Phoenix.
According to the Azcentral, a July report of the Human Rights Watch concluded that substandard medical care contributed to the deaths of the detainees. One of these is the suicide death of Jose de Jesus Deniz-Sahagun.
He is a 31-year-old immigrant from Mexico found dead in his cell in Eloy Immigration Detention Center in May 2015. This was the fifth suicide committed inside the detention center.
The 15 deaths tied to the Eloy Immigration Detention Center represent nine percent of 165 detainees who died om ICE custody since 2003.
