SHOCKING revelations of how 14 needles were inserted into a 10-month old infant.
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| Jacinta Ndunge and Isaac Gichure before a Thika Court with charges of subjecting their child to torture by inserting objects in her body. |
Doctors at Thika Level 5 Hospital suspect foul play in the
case of the 10 month-old infant who was found with 14 needles lodged into her
body.
According to them, the manner in which the pins were
inserted into the baby’s body was suspect and there was no reason to believe
that it was accidental.
Dr. Macharia Mwea who led a team of 4 doctors to conduct
this very delicate 5-hour long operation to remove the needles admitted that he
has never come such a horrific incident in his entire career.
The 14 needles, said to be about 8cm in length and 3mm in
diameter, must have been lodged into the baby’s body weeks or even months
earlier as there were no visible scars nor fresh wounds at their points of
penetration. They had also changed colour to black, probably due to chemical reactions
with her body and rust.
“She has one needle lodged into her lumber area, 10 in her buttocks
muscles and two lodged into her anus. The last one, which was a quarter the
length of the others, had penetrated deep into her pelvis, something that made
it very risky to remove,” said Dr. Macharia.
The pins at her anus are said to have raptured her anal
walls, which might have been one of the reasons the child had suffered some
secondary infections.
According to him, they opted to leave it in due to the risk
of injuring the nerves that give sensation to her private parts and the legs.
“If the risks involved out way the benefits, doctors are at
such events forced to let a foreign body stay inside the human body. In this
case, we feared that if we continued with the process of removing this needle,
we might injure the nerves that give sensations to her private parts and the
muscle supply to the legs,” he explained.
However, Macharia says that there is still hope to remove
the remaining pin once the child has fully recovered.
“The child can still get a more specialised operation at
Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) to remove this pin even though I cannot
guarantee a hundred percent success rate,” he assured.
Baby Wairimu’s case was first detected by paediatricians at the general ward
that she was admitted for an attack by pneumonia.
The doctors noted that the baby used to cry a lot especially
while seated besides the diarrhoea and the vomiting that she was being treated
for.
Upon examination, they discovered some sharp objects in her
bum area and immediately ordered for an X-Ray.
The horrifying X-ray pictures of the kid showed 14 eight-centimetre
long pins stuck inside the girl’s lower abdominal area, consequently necessitating
for an operation to remove them once she had recovered fully from her earlier
ailment.
“It was quite a challenge to extract them safely, as some of
the pins were lodged in some very sensitive area but we managed to remove them
after a 5-hour session, save for the one in her pelvis,” said Macharia.
Hospital authorities recommended psychiatric evaluation of
the mother after she denied any involvement in the incision of the needles even
when she admitted that she has never left the infant in the care of any other
person.
However, the doctors assured that the child is okay for now
and they would embark on social support to treat her for post-traumatic
disorder in the journey towards helping her resume normal life.
Meanwhile, her parents have been arraigned before a Thika
court with charges of subjecting child to torture by inserting objects in her
body.
The two Jacinta Ndunge (31yr) and Isaac Gichure (41yrs) were
charged before principal magistrate Grace Omodho where the two pleaded not
guilty.
The two were remanded till 11th December 2017 when
their case will be mentioned.
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