I Know Love Hurts, But Can We Leave the Kid Out of It?

If this didn't come from a reputable news site, I'd swear they were making it up. But, alas, they're not:

Needles Successfully Extracted from Brazilian Boy

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Surgeons on Friday successfully removed four sewing needles from the lung and near the heart of a Brazilian toddler, allegedly plunged into him by his stepfather during a month long series of bizarre rituals.

The surgery lasted nearly five hours and the 2-year-old boy was in stable condition after the procedure, said Susy Moreno, a spokeswoman for the hospital in the northeastern city of Salvador where the boy was in intensive care.

"He's OK, the surgery was a success, he's doing fine," she said in a telephone interview.

Dozens more needles measuring up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) in length remain inside the boy's body, but the four removed were considered the most life-threatening.

Okay, Badger, take a deep breath. We're not going to lose it...

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Police say the boy's stepfather, 30-year-old bricklayer Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, confessed to pushing supposedly "blessed" sewing needles deep into the child because his lover told him to while in trances.

HE FUCKING WHAT!!!

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The rituals were performed over a period of a month to try to keep the couple together, the stepfather told police. Authorities suspect the woman was trying to take revenge on the wife of her lover by having the man hurt her son.

Magalhaes told detectives the woman would enter into trances and give him commands to insert the needles, police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said. The stepfather told police the rituals happened every few days for a full month, with him inserting several needles during each session.

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Magalhaes and dos Santos were both arrested, though no charges were 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. It was not immediately clear whether they had legal representation.

Who would possibly want to represent these people?

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Authorities also detained the woman who blessed the needles so she could be questioned, but Santana has said he expects she will be released without charge because she did not know how they were being used.

But why would anyone want a blessing put on a needle?

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The boy's mother, a maid, took him to her hometown hospital in Ibotirama 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. The boy was later transferred to the much larger hospital in the coastal city of Salvador.

I'm thinking she probably worked either nights or odd hours, so the kid got left alone with his dad (and his dad's girlfriend) to watch him.

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Police and doctors concluded it would have been impossible for the boy to have ingested the needles, which have been found throughout his abdomen, in one leg and in his spine.

Besides which, two-year-olds are a bit past the 'let's put everything we find in our mouth' stage. And any kid who accidentally swallowed a needle would likely need immediate medical help and wouldn't do it again any time soon.

What I can't believe is that the father basically let this women talk him into damn near killing his own son. I've heard of men thinking with their dicks, but this is just beyond the pale.

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But why would anyone want a blessing put on a needle?

To lance a boil? To use on a voodoo doll?

I'm sure I've heard of other stories a lot like this before. Seriously, WTF? You've got to be insane to think sticking needles like that into someone is doing good.

Raine wrote:

Seriously, WTF? You've got to be insane to think sticking needles like that into someone is doing good.

ORLY?



Yes, I know they're not the same thing. I just felt like being odd.

unskilled78 wrote:

Raine wrote:

Seriously, WTF? You've got to be insane to think sticking needles like that into someone is doing good.

ORLY?



Yes, I know they're not the same thing. I just felt like being odd.

Haha, I was wondering how long until someone was going to point that out. I've had acupuncture before though and it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. >.<

Thanos6 wrote:

Quote :

But why would anyone want a blessing put on a needle?

To lance a boil? To use on a voodoo doll?

Yeah. No sane person would even think that they were going to stick it in a toddler.

Raine wrote:

Haha, I was wondering how long until someone was going to point that out. I've had acupuncture before though and it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. >.<

I've had acupuncture before and I didn't feel it at all. Although, that was on my back, so kinda not the place with the most nerves.

Thanos6 wrote:

Quote :

But why would anyone want a blessing put on a needle?

To lance a boil? To use on a voodoo doll?

Seamstresses get their needles blessed sometimes.

Lapin wrote:

Thanos6 wrote:

Quote :

But why would anyone want a blessing put on a needle?

To lance a boil? To use on a voodoo doll?

Seamstresses get their needles blessed sometimes.

Seamstresses, or "seamstresses"?

TVtropes links, don't hurt me.