A new case of a boy stuck with several sewing needles as part of a black magic rite sickened a Brazil already raw from a two-year-old who nearly lost his life to such a practice.
The boy in the northern state of Maranhao, also two years old, was apparently perforated with the slivers by his father, police told reporters on Wednesday.
“Everything indicates the father participated in black magic rituals. He has been put in preventive custody for five days, and that could be extended for another five days,” said the investigating officer, police chief Armando Pacheco.
According to police, doctors discovered the needles inside the boy’s body in August and removed two of them.
The case came to light after that of another two-year-old boy in the northeastern state of Bahia, who had an operation last week to remove needles perilously close to his heart and lungs.
That boy, who had been pierced with 31 sewing needles, underwent a second operation on Wednesday to remove 14 from his body, a hospital spokeswoman said.
“Surgery lasted almost three hours and was successful,” said the spokeswoman for the Ana Nery Hospital, where the boy is being treated in northeastern Salvador de Bahia.
The final surgery is most delicate and risky, since it involves removing two needles lodged near the boy’s spinal column, the spokeswoman said.
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