Child with needles inside her to be operated upon today

The four-member medical board constituted for the treatment of the Purulia girl who was admitted to the SSKM Hospital with seven needles inside her abdomen will conduct a surgery on Tuesday to remove the needles after the MRI and CT scan reports are available with the doctors.

The medical board will also perform C-Arm, a test to determine if there are any more needles kept inside any part of her body as the doctors at the SSKM Hospital are not sure if any other needles are there that have not been detected in the X-ray. In the medical board, there is a paediatric surgeon, paediatric medicine doctor, an orthopaedic surgeon and a gynaecologist.

A three-year-old girl child was admitted to SSKM hospital on Saturday with several needle injuries and a broken arm. The doctors in the hospital are not ready to take any risk as some of the needles are in a critical position and have impaled important organs and may cause difficulty during the operation. It is also a challenge for the doctors as the needles are located at various positions inside her abdomen. C-Arm will be performed on the patient to ascertain the exact position of the needles.

The doctors have collected some sample of the victim's vaginal swab and sent it to the laboratory to find out if she had been sexually abused. According to the doctors at the hospital, the mother of the victim told the doctors that needles were there inside her body for the past 15-20 days. The doctors are not, however, sure if the victim's mother was providing the right information in this regard.

It was alleged that the girl was physically and sexually abused by an elderly person, Sanatan Thakur who employed her mother as a maidservant in Purulia.

The doctors initially did not decide to carry out the surgery and took time as it may cause further damage to her body in the process. She has been kept under observation. Some of the doctors have hinted that some of the needles may not be removed if they are found to be in a critical position and removal of which may damage any the organs.

Police started a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against Thakur who has been absconding since the incident came to light when the child's mother took her to the Bankura Medical College on Saturday complaining of cough and cold. The doctors, however, found multiple external injuries on her body including those inflicted by the needles. Police have been conducting raids at various places to nab the accused. The motive behind this is not yet clear to the police.