A police official, meanwhile, told The Associated Press the boy’s stepfather had been arrested. The official said that the stepfather had confessed to sticking the needles into the boy with the help of another woman, and that authorities were investigating whether black magic was involved.
“He’s in custody and he confessed,” the officer said.
Surgeons at a hospital in the town of Barreiras in Bahia state decided not to try to remove any needles after discovering that two were very near the boy’s heart, said an official at Hospital do Oeste.
She said the doctors had located 42 needles in the boy. The boy was in intensive care but was in stable condition before being airlifted 390 km north, she said.
“He’ll be flown by helicopter to a hospital in Salvador that has a special heart unit,” the official said. “He has two needles near his heart and our doctors didn’t want to take a chance.”
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