Father pierces toddler’s body with 40 sewing needles

A TODDLER who had more than 40 sewing needles pushed into his body by his step-father was airlifted to a specialist hospital for emergency treatment yesterday.

Doctors in Brazil became concerned when they discovered two of the needles were dangerously close to the two-year-old’s heart.

Police said the boy’s step-father is in custody having confessed to sticking the needles into the boy, possibly in a black magic ritual.

A hospital spokeswoman in the town of Barreiras in Bahia state said doctors had located 42 needles in the boy – eight fewer than they had reported finding on Wednesday.

The boy was in intensive care but was in stable condition before being airlifted 240-miles, she said. “He’ll be flown by helicopter to a hospital in Salvador that has a special heart unit,” she said.

Police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said a black magic ritual involving the boy was among the motives police were looking into.

“All of our officers are focused on this case, gathering information,” he said.

On Wednesday Dr Luiz Cesar Soltoski at the Hospital Oeste said surgeons had hoped to remove most of the needles – some as long as two inches – but those in the lungs will have to wait until the child’s breathing improves.