--- title: Desperate Journey: Crime and Poverty Drive Honduran Kids to U.S. description: In a crowded, run-down emergency room in San Pedro Sula, the reason why so many children are fleeing Honduras for the dangerous trek to the... canonical: https://time.com/2964501/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-08T00:50:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:00:40.287Z article:section: World og:title: Desperate Journey: Crime and Poverty Drive Honduran Kids to U.S. og:description: In a crowded, run-down emergency room in San Pedro Sula, the reason why so many children are fleeing Honduras for the dangerous trek to the... og:url: https://time.com/2964501/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7073497c42e13b/69869acd35ba6fddc1c02ebe/140707-honduras-dying-child-jms-1855_78b53e65c63a41db874a95eac871124f.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 140707-honduras-dying-child-jms-1855_78b53e65c63a41db874a95eac871124f og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Desperate Journey: Crime and Poverty Drive Honduran Kids to U.S. twitter:description: In a crowded, run-down emergency room in San Pedro Sula, the reason why so many children are fleeing Honduras for the dangerous trek to the... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7073497c42e13b/69869acd35ba6fddc1c02ebe/140707-honduras-dying-child-jms-1855_78b53e65c63a41db874a95eac871124f.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Desperate Journey: Crime and Poverty Drive Honduran Kids to U.S. by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Jul 8, 2014 12:50 AM CUT  Mary Murray—NBC News by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Jul 8, 2014 12:50 AM CUT In a crowded, run-down emergency room in San Pedro Sula, the reason why so many children are fleeing Honduras for the dangerous trek to the U.S. is easy to find. A 17-year-old boy lies in a coma on a gurney. He has been shot in the head — yet another victim of the unrelenting violence that has turned this Central American country into the murder capital of the world. A pediatrician who works in the Hospital Nacional emergency room says he’s had to become an expert at repairing the damage bullets do to children. [Read More](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s-n150011?cid=par-time-article%5F20140708 "undefined") at NBC News. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2964501/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2964501/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s/"},"headline":"Desperate Journey: Crime and Poverty Drive Honduran Kids to U.S.","datePublished":"2014-07-08T00:50:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:00:40.287Z","description":"In a crowded, run-down emergency room in San Pedro Sula, the reason why so many children are fleeing Honduras for the dangerous trek to the...","url":"https://time.com/2964501/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s/","keywords":["Honduras","Crime","poverty","kids","Immigration","central america"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7073497c42e13b/69869acd35ba6fddc1c02ebe/140707-honduras-dying-child-jms-1855_78b53e65c63a41db874a95eac871124f.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7073497c42e13b/69869acd35ba6fddc1c02ebe/140707-honduras-dying-child-jms-1855_78b53e65c63a41db874a95eac871124f.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"140707-honduras-dying-child-jms-1855_78b53e65c63a41db874a95eac871124f","caption":"","creditText":"Mary Murray—NBC News","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/honduras/","name":"Honduras"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2964501/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s/","name":"Desperate Journey: Crime and Poverty Drive Honduran Kids to U.S."}}]}] ```