The doctors who attended the abused baby say they had never seen such serious injuries

BarcelonaThe healthcare professionals at Vall d'Hebron Hospital who treated the abused infant admitted to the ICU agree that the child's injuries were not accidental and consider them consistent with child abuse. Five professionals testified this Thursday before the judge investigating the infant's parents for alleged abuse, injuries, and sexual assault. According to sources present at the testimony, these professionals stated that some of these injuries posed a life-threatening risk to the baby, who was five weeks old when admitted to the hospital and spent a month hospitalized. He is now with a foster family and his health is improving.

Among the doctors and nurses from this reference center for child abuse who testified this Thursday before the judge are specialists with over 20 years of experience, as well as the pediatrician and head of the EMMA team, the Unit for Care of Violence against Children and Adolescents. According to legal sources, both she and the pediatric surgeon who treated the child insisted that in their professional careers, they had never seen such severe anal injuries as those the child had.

The baby has fractures in both femurs that healthcare professionals believe could be the result of a violent shake, which would also have caused brain and rib damage. Additionally, there is another injury to the femur that healthcare professionals have attributed to an action of "stretching and twisting" the leg, according to sources present at the testimony. The on-call pediatrician who treated the child upon arrival at the hospital explained that these injuries posed a life-threatening risk because if the bone splintered, it could rupture an artery.

In fact, this meant that on the first day the child was admitted to the hospital, the anal injuries were not detected because his condition was so delicate that they could not move his legs to examine him. These injuries were detected two days later and confirmed with an MRI scan. Given the severity, a pediatric surgeon was called in, who this Thursday stated that the internal injuries the child had could imply that an object or a penis was inserted into him. Sources present at the declaration assure that the surgeon said it cannot be ruled out that this happened more than once, and that he rejected that the injuries were an accident while trying to help him with anal stimulation to facilitate defecation or due to constipation as the defense argued, which insisted on the man's lack of skill in treating the child.

The child also had a bruise on his cheek, which the father's defense attributes to the abruptness of pinching him, but which healthcare professionals have ruled out as being caused in this way, according to sources present at the declaration. When he arrived at the hospital, they also found a bruise on his scrotum, which the defense justifies by the fact that he had been wearing a urine bag, but healthcare professionals have also ruled out this as the cause.

They will ask to testify again

Both the baby's mother and father will request to testify again before the judge investigating them. So far, they have only explained when they were brought before the court after being arrested on March 18. After that statement, the judge sent both of them to provisional prison and since then the investigated parties have not spoken again.

Nor did they participate in the hearing in which the provisional prison was reviewed, although at that time the woman's defense already distanced itself from the man's actions, saying that as a mother there are "things she cannot control". After this move, the Barcelona Court released her on provisional liberty, but kept the man imprisoned, who, according to his lawyer, will again request to be released in the coming days.

This week, the investigation has chained together three days of witness testimonies in the case. On Wednesday, two friends and colleagues of the mother, who are nurses like her, explained that the investigated woman had confessed to them that she was considering kicking the man out of the house because he did not take good care of the child. Furthermore, once she was already in prison, she called one of them to read her the literal words of the message in which she had explained it to them. For Friday, several relatives of the suspects are summoned to testify.