Brazil Stepfather confesses to sticking needles in toddler UPDATE #7 worst removed
I can't even be shocked...this is beyond anything I ever thought was possible for people to do...
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/0..._boy_needles_8
Brazil police: Stepfather confesses to sticking needles in toddler as part of ritual
Thu Dec 17, 11:52 AM
By Marco Sibaja, The Associated Press
BRASILIA, Brazil - The stepfather of a 2-year-old boy found with 42 needles in his body has confessed to jabbing them into the toddler as part of a religious ritual, Brazilian police said Thursday.
Roberto Carlos Magalhaes told detectives that a woman who went into a trance would "command him to stick the needles in the boy's body," police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
"According to his confession, he acted under influence of the woman, but it was him who stuck the needles in the boy's body," the inspector said. He said three people, including the stepfather and the woman, have been arrested, though no charges have yet been filed.
An enraged crowd of more than 100 people surrounded the police station where the suspects were held Wednesday night, hurling rocks at the building. Santana said they broke out a window of his own car because they wrongly believed the suspects were in it.
Extra police were called in to restore order and protect the suspects.
The child, meanwhile, was airlifted to the heart unit of a major hospital in northeastern Brazil Thursday because two of the needles are close to his heart, but it was not immediately clear when doctors might be able to remove them.
Surgeons at a hospital in the town of Barreiras in Bahia state, where the boy had been hospitalized since Sunday had decided not to try to remove any needles immediately for fear they could cause more damage.
Doctors located 42 needles in the boy, who was in stable condition in the coastal city of Salvador after a 240-mile (390-kilometre) flight to a hospital with a special heart unit.
Hospital spokeswoman Susy Moreno said an evaluation of how to treat the boy probably would not be finished until Friday.
The boy's mother, a maid, took him to a hospital in the small northeastern city of Ibotirama on Dec. 10, saying he was complaining of pain. Three days later, after X-rays revealed many of the needles, doctors moved him to the larger hospital in the nearby city of Barreiras.
The mother told police she didn't know how the needles got inside her son, whose name was not released because of his age.
The boy's father, Gessivaldo Alves, told the newspaper A Tarde that he believed his son could have been a victim of a black magic ritual. Alves reportedly said he visited the home where the boy was living and found unspecified items that could be used for black magic.
Santana said police are investigating to determine what sort of religious sect the stepfather and the women belonged to.
One of the doctors who treated the child, Luiz Cesar Soltoski, said he believed that the needles were stuck into the child's body one by one.
"We think it could have only been by penetration because we found needles in the lung, the left leg and in different parts of the thorax. It couldn't have been by ingestion," Soltoski said.
Doctors found no signs of outside wounds on the boy. X-ray images carried by Brazilian Web sites clearly showed some of the needles deep inside his body.
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Associated Press Writer Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo contributed.
Doctors to extract needles from Brazilian boy
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/...y-surgery.html
Doctors to extract needles from Brazilian boy
Last Updated: Friday, December 18, 2009 | 12:44 PM ET
The Associated Press
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/to...cp-7822668.jpg
In this frame taken from a TV Globo video, a person points at an X-ray of a two-year-old boy showing needles inside his body in a hospital in Ibotirama, northern Brazil, on Tuesday. (Agencia O Globo/Associated Press)
Doctors prepared Friday to perform emergency surgery on a Brazilian toddler to remove some of the 42 sewing needles allegedly inserted into him by his stepfather during a series of rituals.
Surgeons in the northeastern city of Salvador plan to take out a needle that punctured the two-year-old boy's heart and others threatening vital organs, said Susy Moreno, a spokeswoman at the hospital where the boy is being treated.
Friday's operation could be followed by more surgery, she said.
Police say the boy's stepfather confessed to pushing 42 supposedly "blessed" sewing needles deep into the child because his lover told him to while in trances. The rituals were performed over a period of a month to try to keep the couple together, the stepfather told police.
Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, a 30-year-old bricklayer, told detectives the woman would enter into trances and "command him to stick the needles in the boy's body," police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana told The Associated Press by telephone.
'What happened to this boy without a doubt could feed into the prejudice against Afro-Brazilian traditions.'— Nelson Inocencio, University of Brasilia
The lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, paid to have the needles measuring up to five centimetres blessed by a woman who practised the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble, and convinced Magalhaes that inserting them into the boy would somehow allow them to be together, Santana alleged.
Police, however, allege dos Santos was out for revenge on the boy's mother, though they did not say why.
"According to his confession, he acted under influence of the woman, but it was he who stuck the needles in the boy's body," the inspector alleges.
Magalhaes and dos Santos were both arrested, though no charges have yet been filed.
Dos Santos is not believed to be a member of any religious or occult group, and authorities believe she came up with the idea of the rituals on her own, Santana said.
Afro-Brazilian religions
The two were taken to an undisclosed lockup for their own protection after a mob threw stones at the police station where they were being held. It was not immediately clear whether they had legal representation.
Authorities also detained the woman who blessed the needles so she could be questioned, but Santana said he expects she will be released without charge because she did not know how they were being used.
The boy's mother, a maid, took him to a hospital in the town of Ibotirama on Dec. 10, saying he was complaining of pain.
After X-rays revealed the cause, the mother told police she didn't know how the needles got inside her son, whose name was not released because of his age. The boy was later transferred for more advanced evaluation at a much larger hospital in the coastal city of Salvador.
Police and doctors concluded it would have been impossible for the boy to have ingested the needles — which have also been found in a lung and in his left leg, and spread throughout his abdomen.
Afro-Brazilian religions practised in Brazil have no ceremonies, rituals or practices involving harm to people, said Nelson Inocencio, director of African-Brazilian studies at the University of Brasilia.
He worried that the incident could hurt the image of the religions, of which Candomble is the most popular and concentrated most in Bahia state.
"What happened to this boy without a doubt could feed into the prejudice against Afro-Brazilian traditions," he said.
© The Canadian Press, 2009
Needles successfully extracted from Brazil boy
I just pasted part of the article; go to the link for the whole thing.
This pic from when the little boy was on his way to surgery. Bless these doctors!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...kt7fGxA?size=l
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...mg8ogD9CM81980
Needles successfully extracted from Brazil boy
By ALAN CLENDENNING (AP) – 9 hours ago
SAO PAULO — Surgeons successfully removed the four most life-threatening needles from the lung and heart area of a Brazilian toddler, and are evaluating when to extract dozens more allegedly stuck deep into the boy by his stepfather.
Police say 30-year-old bricklayer Roberto Carlos Magalhaes confessed to pushing the metal sewing needles into the 2-year-old child because his lover told him to while in trances. The rituals were performed over a month supposedly to keep the couple together.
Late Friday, the child was in stable condition after nearly five hours of surgery to remove the four needles, which were up to 2 inches (5 centimeters), said Susy Moreno, a spokeswoman for the hospital in the northeastern city of Salvador where the boy was in intensive care.
"He's OK, the surgery was a success, he's doing fine," she said in a telephone interview.
Dozens more needles remain inside the boy's body, but the four removed were considered the most life-threatening.
Doctors will evaluate the boy's recovery before deciding when to perform at least two more surgeries to remove more needles, she said.
Police say they believe the lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, told Magalhaes the ritual would keep them together, but she was really seeking revenge on Magalhaes' wife by having him hurt her son.
The bricklayer told detectives that dos Santos would enter into trances and give him commands to insert the needles, police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said. The stepfather told police the rituals happened every few days for a full month, with him inserting several needles during each session.
Dos Santos paid to have the needles blessed by a woman who practiced the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble, Santana said.
Authorities initially estimated the boy had as many as 50 needles were inside the boy. After batteries of tests were performed, doctors now believe there are closer to 30 needles inside, but they don't know for sure.
"They haven't focused on how many there are because they are concentrating on the most dangerous ones," Moreno said.
Magalhaes and dos Santos were both arrested, though no charges were filed.
Brazilian man says needles meant to kill stepson
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/...ep-father.html
Brazilian man says needles meant to kill stepson
Last Updated: Monday, December 21, 2009 | 11:10 AM ET
The Associated Press
A jailed Brazilian admitted in a television interview that he shoved nearly three dozen sewing needles into his two-year-old stepson because he wanted to kill the boy to spite his wife.
Speaking from his cell, 30-year-old bricklayer Roberto Carlos Magalhaes told how he doped the child with wine mixed in water, then stuck needles into his body while his lover held the boy down.
"I did this two or three times a week during one month," Magalhaes said in an interview with Globo TV's Fantastico program Sunday from a jail in the northeastern state of Bahia.
The boy was too drunk from the wine mixture to cry while the needles were being pushed in, but he felt pain after the alcohol wore off, Magalhaes said.
"It was truly an unbearable suffering," he said. "It was to get back at the boy's mother. I thought the needles would work their way through his body and kill the boy. It was a way to kill without anyone discovering."
But the pain led the toddler to complain to his mother, and on Dec. 10 she took him to a hospital where X-rays revealed about 30 needles lodged throughout his body.
The boy underwent a five-hour operation in the northeastern city of Salvador on Friday to remove four rusty needles that most threatened his life, near his heart and in his lungs.
Boy needs more surgeries
Doctors said Sunday the child was doing well and would likely undergo two more surgeries, the next one Wednesday at the earliest, to extract needles up to five centimetres long from his abdomen and spine.
Suzy Moreno, a spokeswoman for Hospital Ana Nery, said hundreds of people across Brazil had contacted the facility to inquire about the boy.
"Many people are coming by to bring Christmas presents," she said. "Many are also calling us to express their outrage.… The support has been incredible."
Along with Magalhaes, police believe his lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, was also seeking revenge on Magalhaes' wife.
The bricklayer told detectives that dos Santos would enter into trances and give him commands to insert the needles, police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said.
Magalhaes and dos Santos were both arrested, though no charges had been filed. They were taken to an undisclosed location for their own protection after a mob threw stones at the police station where they were being held.
Dos Santos is not believed to be a member of any religious or occult group, and authorities believe the pair came up with the idea on their own.
The boy's name is not being released because of his age.
© The Canadian Press, 2009
