(CNN) — The Marion County, Illinois coroner said Jismary Alejandra Barboza González, a 3-year-old Venezuelan girl, traveled to Chicago on a bus funded by the state of Texas and ended up in Died of bacterial infection and aspiration pneumonia with diarrhea and vomiting. Troy Cannon told CNN in a statement.
The coroner said the girl had Shigella flexneri colitis, a highly contagious bacterial infection of the gut that can be contracted through ingestion of infected faeces, food or water. Symptoms include diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever and vomiting. Aspiration pneumonia occurs when you breathe in material other than air, such as food, saliva, and vomit, causing shortness of breath, fever, cough, and chest pain.
Cannon said the girl’s condition had resulted in “electrolyte abnormalities and brain swelling”. Gonzalez tested positive for norovirus and rotavirus in the gut and positive for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the lungs, which can also cause diarrhea and respiratory symptoms.
“Gonzalez showed no signs of trauma, tumors or congenital diseases, and he was born two months prematurely. His weight and height were very low for his age, according to World Health Organization growth standards for children, and his growth rate was 100%. Quantiles of 0.2 and 1.2 were a significant factor in his death,” Cannon said.
According to Cannon, Gonzalez was traveling with her Venezuelan parents when she began to have mild symptoms and began feeling unwell when the family boarded a Texas-sponsored bus in Brownsville.
“During the trip, his symptoms worsened, including vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and dehydration. He drank a nutritional electrolyte drink in the car,” Cannon explained.
According to Cannon, at some point during the trip, the girl’s temperature reached 38 degrees Celsius and her condition worsened and she began to have difficulty breathing.
About 128 kilometers on Interstate 57 in Illinois, the girl’s mother noticed her daughter was “unresponsive and unresponsive,” so the bus pulled over to the side of the highway and officials called 911. Canon said.
According to Cannon, Gonzalez was taken to the hospital where emergency room doctors pronounced her dead.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating the death, CNN previously reported. CNN has reached out to the CDC for an update on the investigation but has not yet heard back.