The family of a Costa Rican man who was deported from the United States in a vegetative state and died shortly after returning home is demanding answers from US authorities about his treatment while in detention. Randall Gamboa Esquivel, 52, had crossed the US-Mexico border in December 2024 and was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for re-entering unlawfully.
He was held at the Webb County detention centre in Laredo and later transferred to the Port Isabel facility in Los Fresnos, Texas. Nearly ten months later, in September 2025, the Trump administration flew him to San José on an air ambulance. He never regained consciousness and died five weeks later at a hospital in Pérez Zeledón.
His sister, Greidy Mata, said Gamboa appeared healthy during video calls until 12 June, after which he vanished. 'How is it possible that a man that left healthy, tall, chubby, robust, came back dirty, looked abandoned, with ulcers on his entire body, in a vegetative state?' she said. Medical records show he was transferred to Valley Baptist Medical Center on 23 June with 'altered mental status' and was taking antipsychotic and antidepressant medications. Family and friends denied any history of mental illness.
Hospital documents listed sepsis as his primary diagnosis, along with rhabdomyolysis, protein malnutrition, and toxic encephalopathy. The Department of Homeland Security said medical professionals diagnosed him with unspecified psychosis and hospitalised him for care, adding that ICE provides 'the best health care that many aliens have received in their entire lives.'
Mata said the family only learned of his condition in August and is still struggling to understand how his health deteriorated so severely in custody.
