While the procedure was being performed, medical equipment attached to the boy suddenly “blacked out.”
Variety learned that the boy died of cardio respiratory arrest, respiratory failure, and pneumonia.
“Because of patient confidentiality issues [relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act], I cannot and will not make any comments relating to patient care,” Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez said in an e-mail to the Variety when asked to comment.
The boy’s parents are bringing his remains to the Philippines on Saturday.
There will be a final viewing on Thursday evening at the CHC chapel and a Mass is held daily at the Kristo Rai church.
A special education student at a public elementary school on Saipan, the boy was the youngest in a brood of four.
On May 18, the boy was not sent to school because he was not feeling well.
His mother called 911 on the same day and the boy was rushed to CHC’s emergency room where he was revived.
The boy was able to talk to the attending doctor, and he informed the doctor that he wanted to go home, Variety learned.
But the boy was admitted to the intensive care unit for observation since his blood pressure and oxygen levels were decreasing.
The next morning, on May 19, the boy underwent a tracheotomy procedure to ease his breathing while being injected three times with “sedatives” to ease his pain.
Before the procedure, the boy told CHC personnel that he could “breathe on his own,” and that he wanted to go home.
The boy’s x-ray examination confirmed that he had pneumonia.
The boy’s mother was then told that the child “couldn’t survive.”
The results of the boy’s CT scan on May 21 and 24 indicated a “swelling of the brain” and an “unstable condition.” The boy was declared “brain dead” on May 27.
At about 7:56 a.m. on May 28, he passed away.
