The litle boy with the rotten hand
The left hand of the five-year-old boy at Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District of the Central Region, which was left to rot after he had sustained a machete wound, has been amputated.
The pregnant stepmother, Efua Baidoowa, 22, purportedly cut the hand of the little boy accidentally with a machete some weeks ago, but refused to treat it. Therefore, the left forearm of the boy, Isaac Mensah, decomposed quickly to the shoulder.
According to reports, two men spotted the boy at Ahomfi in the district last Monday and became alarmed by the rotten hand. They immediately reported the matter to the District Director of NCCE, Ellen Osei, who also reported same to the police before taking him to the hospital the same day for medical examination.
The doctors indicated that the veins and cells in the hand had all died, adding that the decomposition was gradually spreading to the shoulder.
The doctors at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital successfully amputated the hand yesterday to stop further damage to the little boy. According to sources, the boy is currently in the company of social welfare workers and some staff of the hospital, who are taking care of him.
Meanwhile, the hospital has appealed to the public to assist little Isaac to get an artificial hand.
Parents Arrested
Police in the Central Region on Tuesday arrested the father, David Mensah, 36, and Efua Baidoowa, who will soon be put before court with a possible charge of causing harm.
Mensah, a palm-wine tapper, was arrested late Tuesday afternoon at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital where he signed a consent form for the arm of the victim to be amputated.
The boy’s stepmother was also arrested after visiting the victim at the hospital on Tuesday. Her statement has since been taken by the police.
Speaking to journalists, the stepmother alleged that she did not intend to cause injury to the boy.
“The little boy defecated on our compound and so I decided to punish him. I was then holding a machete so I decided to use the side to hit him, but he raised his arm to block it. Unfortunately, the cutlass cut him; we took him to a clinic and he was given injection and medication,” she alleged.
She claimed later a man told her to use warm water to clean the wound at home, adding that “when I tried to do it, he poured the water away. I decided to use the hot water again but it worsened the case.”
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi