Doctors to perform emergency surgery on Brazil boy with needles in body

Doctors to extract needles from Brazil toddler

BRASILIA, Brazil — Doctors are getting ready to perform emergency surgery on a Brazilian toddler with 42 sewing needles that were allegedly inserted into him by his stepfather during a series of bizarre rituals.

Surgeons in the northeastern city of Salvador plan to take out a needle that punctured the 2-year-old boy’s heart and others threatening vital organs.

Hospital spokeswoman Susy Moreno says Friday’s operation could be followed by more surgery later.

Police say the boy’s stepfather confessed he pushed 42 supposedly “blessed” sewing needles deep into the child because his lover told him to while in trances. He says the rituals were performed over a period of a month to try to keep the couple together.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The stepfather of a 2-year-old boy claimed he pushed 42 “blessed” sewing needles deep into the toddler because his lover told him to while in a trance, saying it would keep the couple together, according to police.

Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, a 30-year-old bricklayer, told detectives the woman would enter a trance and “command him to stick the needles in the boy’s body,” police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana told The Associated Press by telephone.

The lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, paid to have the needles measuring up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) blessed by a woman who practiced the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble, and convinced Magalhaes that inserting them into the boy would somehow allow them to be together, Santana said.

Police, however, believe 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 said.

One of the needles penetrated the boy’s heart, meaning he may need an emergency operation if any bleeding starts, Brazil’s Globo TV reported Friday, quoting unnamed hospital sources. The boy also had a fever brought on by a heart infection but he was conscious and in stable condition in an intensive care unit, the network said.

Officials at the hospital in the coastal city of Salvador have said previously that two needles were close to his heart, one was embedded in a lung and others were dangerously close to vital organs. They declined immediate comment on the Globo TV report, saying doctors would hold a press conference later to discuss the boy’s condition.

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.

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 in the small northeastern city of Ibotirama. 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 Ibotirama, population about 25,000, 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.

Police and doctors concluded it would have been impossible for the boy to have ingested the needles — which have been also in his left leg and spread throughout his abdomen.

Afro-Brazilian religions practiced 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.

Associated Press writer Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.