Chinese baby girl has 12 sewing needles removed from her body

[SoleSurvivor]

Chinese baby girl has 12 sewing needles removed from her body

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 22 October, 2014, 10:44pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 23 October, 2014, 3:58pm

Chen Yifei [email protected]

X-ray showing needles inside the 11-month-old girl's body.

An 11-month-old girl was rushed to Beijing by high-speed train after 12 sewing needles were taken out of her body at a provincial hospital – just one month after four other needles were found inside her.

Zhang Zixuan was taken 435 kilometres to Beijing Children’s Hospital from the eastern city of Jinan after doctors said the girl was in serious condition and they were unable to give her further treatment.

Zhang’s parents said they had taken their daughter to at Qilu Hospital of Shandong University after she became irritable and they noticed a red mark on her bottom.

An X-ray showed that 12 needles had been deliberately inserted into the girl's hip, abdomen, pelvis and ribs. The girl’s father, Fang Guangsheng, revealed that four needles had been found inside her a month earlier, but at the time he and his wife had considered it to be an accident and were not alarmed.

The mother, not identified by name, said she did not know who could have injured her daughter. “I never left her alone, except for when I was cooking or washing clothes, when others would look after the baby,” she told Shandong Television.

The girl's mother said she did not know who could have injured her daughter. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Fang reported the matter to local police, but said he was more concerned about having the needles removed. The girl’s current condition is not known.

A number of similar child abuse cases involving steel pins or needles have been reported in the Chinese media in recent years.

In August, a three-year-old girl from Jiangxi province was taken to hospital after her grandmother found her belly had swollen like a watermelon and there were bruises all over her body. A medical examination showed her intestine had been pierced by a 6cm-long needle.

In 2008, a Hong Kong woman was placed on a year’s probation bond and ordered to undergo counselling and seek psychiatric treatment after she repeatedly pricked her nine-year-old daughter with needles because she was angry the child had not done housework.

The girl was pricked with needles about 20 times on her hands, arms and head, although she did not suffer serious injuries.