KOCHI: The medical board, formed to look into the injuries of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl child of an Assamese couple at Muvattupuzha, has decided not to go by the statement of the child that the injuries on her private parts were from a fall she suffered while playing. The board will conduct further medical examination of the victim girl who is recuperating from severe injuries and internal infection under special care of a team of doctors at Kottayam Government Medical College.
The board, which met on Thursday under the leadership of Dr P Savida, superintendent of Institute of Child Health (ICH) in Government Medical College Hospital at Kottayam, reviewed the medical examination reports of the child and decided that the child need to be medically examined in details to clear certain doubts pertaining to sexual abuse.
“We need to conduct a detailed medical examination that requires anaesthetic support. But her health condition is not fit for an anaesthetic procedure. So we have decided to wait,” said Savida.Officials said the child’s condition was very bad when she was brought to the hospital. As per the medical reports, the child had huge pus formation in the anal cavity apart from a femur fracture and several injury marks on the body. Medical examination also detected that the child was starving for many days.
“There is a specific protocol that we need to follow when we get patients with injuries that indicate physical and sexual assault. We will be doing further medical tests to confirm it,” said a doctor.The medical board’s decision to go for a detailed test comes at a time when the child has given a statement to the police and the magistrate that she suffered injuries after she fell on a bicycle while playing at home.
Muvattupuzha police launched a probe into the incident after doctors attending on her at the hospital raised suspicion about possible sexual abuse, but the girl’s statement forced the police to pause the probe. The girl and her parents were staying on rented premises at Perumattam. After the girl complained of abdominal pain, she was first taken to a private hospital and later shifted to MCH on March 25.