Surgeons Take 8 Hours to Extract 50 Needles inside Tortured Boy’s Stomach

A team of six health workers at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital took eight hours to operate on Samuel Akamumpa, a 9-year-old boy who was forced to swallow four dozen needles and many pieces of broken pens in Mitooma district.

The team comprised of an anesthetist, three pediatric surgeons, and two theater nurses to carry out the successful operation.

Dr Deus Twesigye, the lead general surgeon and also the acting Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital director, says that the operation was done twice in a space of two days, with the first operation taking six hours and the second taking two hours.

He narrates that the first operation saw 48 needles extracted, and the second operation saw 2 needles extracted, and in every operation, broken pieces of plastic Bic pen were removed from the abdomen.

Twesigye says that before the operation, it took two diagnostic investigations using an ultrasound Scan and an X-ray to confirm four antibodies (external particles) in the abdomen of the nine-year-old child after presenting progressive loss of weight, abdominal pains, and passing dark stool. He had also lost appetite for a stretch of eight months.  

The surgeon explains that the foreign bodies (needles and broken plastics) were at different stages in the abdomen, with some found high in the stomach, others in a small gut, and others far down towards the rectum (end of large intestine).

“So in the theater, we explored his abdomen with the use of magnets,” he says. “We extracted 50 needles, the ones we commonly use for sewing; some of them had threads. However, on further exploration, we found that there were also multiple pieces of broken BIC pen particles, which looked like they had been crushed, so we had to create different openings to access these needles and even access these small pieces.”

He adds that they have since set up a team of counselors, psychiatrists, social workers, and the pediatric surgeon to engage and make follow-ups and treat trauma for both the child and the parents.

“We are involving these specialists, we do believe that psychologically this child will pull out of this torture he has gone through.”

Twesigye says that it was discovered during diagnosis that if the needles had stayed in the abdomen for one more month, they would reach a point of piercing through the gut and force the stool or the content of the intestines to leak through the opening and would “extravagate” in the abdomen.

“The stool would seep through and stagnate in the abdomen, and cause peritoneum leading to the growth of infection,” the surgeon explained. “In a short time pus would accumulate in the whole abdomen, cause a grossly distended abdomen, difficulty in breathing, running fevers, and blood pressures going down.”

He adds that the needles would block the upper gut, and maybe the lower gut, noting that every time one eats, with failure they vomit, leading to malnourishment, failure of the electrolytes, body solids would become deranged, and when that happens, the heart and the kidneys can’t function for long.

Juliet Tushabeomwe, 45, was arrested after she was accused of having forced her stepson to swallow needles and broken pieces of a BIC pen.

Tushabomwe was arraigned before the Mitooma Grade One Magistrate, charged with two counts -aggravated torture and attempted murder- and remanded to Mitooma Government prisons after she pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Akamumpa had been rushed to Gava Imaging Centre for X-ray and later to Ishaka Adventist Hospital for a CT scan, which revealed metallic objects inside the child’s stomach, forcing a referral to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, where he was operated on.