KOCHI: The seven-year-old boy who was brutally assaulted by his mother’s friend at Thodupuzha, succumbed to his injuries on Saturday. The boy had been battling for life in a ventilator at the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College (MOSC), Kolenchery, for the past nine days.
Dr G Sreekumar, professor, Department of Neurosurgery at MOSC Medical College, told reporters that the boy’s pulse and blood pressure drastically dropped in the morning, leading to his death. The hospital authorities confirmed the death by 11.35 am.
“The boy’s life was being sustained with medicines and ventilator support. However, he stopped responding to medicines from Saturday morning and the heartbeat completely stopped by 11.30 am. We took an ECG at 11.35 am, which confirmed his death,” said the doctor. Hospital sources said the boy didn’t show any sign of recovery all these days, except for a slight movement of hand soon after the surgery. There were fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rate by Friday evening itself. The digestion was also not proper.
INHUMAN ACT
● The accused, Arun Anand, had brutally beaten the child, flung him on the ground, smashed his head against a wardrobe and used a stick to beat him up.
● Murder charge has been slapped on the accused
Murder charges slapped on the accused
These were all bad signs, but it was by Saturday morning that his blood pressure and pulse rate drastically dropped, according to the hospital authorities.
Doctors said the boy was exhibiting ‘battered baby syndrome’ as he had various types of wounds, suggesting the boy had been tortured earlier also. The boy had suffered a subdural haemorrhage (or haematoma), a type of bleeding that often occurs outside the brain as a result of a severe fracture to the skull. The incident occurred in Thodupuzha on March 28.
The accused, Arun Anand, was arrested following the incident. A murder charge has been slapped on the accused following the death of the boy. The police have also booked the accused under the POCSO Act for sexually abusing the boy’s younger brother.
Girl dies in fire from candle flame in Alappuzha
ALAPPUZHA: A nine-year-old girl who suffered burns from a candle lit on a tomb near her grandfather’s tomb, died on Saturday. Tina Antony, daughter of Antony of Vezhapra, Kuttanad, died at a hospital in Kochi. The incident took place at St Paul’s Church, Vezhapra, on Wednesday when she was placing a bouquet on the tomb of her grandfather.