Murdered in cold blood by a quack surgeon

The picture shows a baby delivered by cesarean section at a facility at Genyi, Yandev near Gboko on Friday 21 September, 2012. Careful study of the picture shows a well-developed normal baby. The only problem is exenteration. The intestines are also well developed. There is evidence of trauma and subserosal bleeding in parts of the ileum. Despite the blood staining of the skin seen on the right side of the body, the general colour of the baby suggests it was born alive and breathed, as all the visible blood seems to be well oxygenated. The inevitable conclusion is that the ‘surgeon’ must have accidentally cut open the baby’s anterior abdominal wall during the stage of incising the uterus. Had this clumsy, careless, and extremely stupid accident happen in a proper environment for practicing medicine, the baby would have been immediately transferred to a qualified surgeon for proper care. This was not to be. The practitioner left this baby to die of these injuries rather than expose his incompetence. The quack told the parents that the baby was a monster without an abdomen. This brought fear to the parents, and some relatives are reported to have taken to their heels. Powerful witchcraft from an enemy was feared to have caused the tragedy. The credulity of the people gave him the confidence to permit a photograph to be taken of the ‘monster’. With no post-mortem done, the parents satisfied with the superstitious explanation, the quack is quite safe to continue his criminal activity.

This is the tragedy of a country called Nigeria