A family is mourning after unexpectedly losing their matriarch after she got sick while on a trip to see a friend in West Africa. The Missouri woman contracted an acute case of malaria that despite being treated proved to be deadly.
The victim’s children believe the U.S. Embassy did not do everything it could to help, claiming workers took their time in responding and provided no assistance to get their mother home to doctors that could save her life.
Latrice Clayton, 46, had wanted to visit the motherland for decades but never had the chance. She had a friend that lived in Abidjan and she wanted to visit. Her dreams came true last month when she set foot on the Ivory Coast on Tuesday, April 18, her daughter told People magazine.
After a day of being on the continent, she started to feel ill, her daughter Crystal Clayton states. She was taken to a medical professional who diagnosed her with malaria.
She had been infected by the debilitating parasite even though she was taking malaria pills and had received all of the mandatory vaccines before traveling. The Kansas City mother also registered with the U.S. Embassy in preparation for her trip.
The doctors treated her symptoms, but her body was not responding well. The mosquito-borne disease caused her blood pressure to go up, and even by the time she no longer had malaria, her pressure remained too high for her to catch an emergency commercial flight back to Missouri on Wednesday, April 24.
Crystal said she was desperate to get her mother home, but her health hindered her from taking the long flight. The mother went to a different clinic and was tested and treated again. Still, her blood pressure was an issue.
The blood pressure was not the only issue, according to the family, “Because she was from the United States the hospital would not take her medical insurance, so she could not receive the proper care and medication she needed.”
Latrice would eventually have a stroke and…
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