Cerebral malaria is fatal with no treatment in many cases. For kids and elderly it’s fatal even with.
Likely this happened because they have no expertise and didn’t know what to do.
Imagine if you showed up in a hospital in the us with a sting from some super intense scorpion that only exists is some obscure part of the world. They’ll try to help, but likely can’t do much.
Nigerian here, cerebral malaria is very curable. It's very common and people survive.