A pathology report says a man detained at a police station died from leptospirosis

The San Cristóbal Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the causes of death of a man who was involved in a legal process and who died in a hospital the day after being released.

Through a press release, the Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that, as part of its investigation proceedings, it received a preliminary autopsy report from the National Institute of Forensic Pathology, which establishes that Miguel Antonio Valenzuela, 44 years old, died from leptospirosis that caused thrombocytopenia.

It is important to remember that leptospirosis is transmitted to humans through direct contact with the urine of infected animals (especially rodents, dogs, and livestock) or contaminated water/soil.

He explained that the man was arrested on July 8, in the afternoon, by agents of the National Police who caught him conducting clandestine raffles with a Verifone terminal.

He indicated that the officers transferred him to the 17th Company Detachment in San Cristóbal. On July 10, the arrested man’s family members visited him at the police detachment.

Then, on July 13, Valenzuela was transferred to the Palace of Justice in San Cristóbal, where he was released.

Upon leaving the courthouse after his release, he reported feeling weak, so his family took him to the Juan Pablo Pina Regional Teaching Hospital in that province.

The San Cristóbal Prosecutor’s Office explained that, as part of the investigation of the case, it was referred to Forensic Pathology, an entity that issued a report explaining that in the hospital and during his medical care, Valenzuela presented dyspnea, generalized rash, petechiae and conjunctival hemorrhage, which is why he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, presenting at 11:20 at night a cardiorespiratory arrest that could not be reversed.

Forensic Pathology explains that during the autopsy, they found “organic alterations characteristic of an inflammatory pathological process.”

They explain that a polymerase chain reaction test was performed, using the ELISA method, which was positive for leptospirosis, identifying the agent that influenced the start of the cascade of events that led to Valenzuela’s death.

The prosecutor’s office explains that the Ministry of Public Health department “provides as the basic cause of death a bacterial infectious process by an agent detected through laboratory tests.”