All 12 needles removed from 11-month-old baby girl's body

All 12 needles were successfully removed from 11-month-old girl Zi Xuan, after 5 hours of surgery at Beijing Children's Hospital yesterday morning.

She was earlier found with 12 needles embedded in various parts of her body after a X-ray examination at a hospital in her hometown Shandong, China.

Her parents brought her to the emergency department of Beijing Children's Hospital on Oct 22 to seek help. The doctors said that the needles were in danger of travelling to her internal organs.

CNR.cn reported that doctors extracted the needles via minimally invasive surgery (MIS), where small incisions were made with guidance from tiny cameras, fibre-optic video equipment, ultrasound and Computed Tomography (CT) technology to access the operative region.

A doctor shared that the biggest challenge of the surgery was to determine the exact locations of the needles before extraction, as new tissue had formed around the embedded needles, which stayed in the girl's body for nearly two months. He added that the tissue and veins around the needles would be damaged if the extraction was done without precision.

Of the 12 extracted needles, 10 were found to be hypodermic needles, and the remaining two were sewing needles.

According to Fawan.com, Zi Xuan's mother waited anxiously outside the operating theatre as the girl underwent the life-saving operation. She later cried out in relief after her daughter was wheeled out from surgery, all needles removed from her body.

The girl is currently under observation at the hospital. Medical staff will monitor her condition by checking her vitals and looking out for any sign of infection. The toddler is expected to be discharged a week later.

Local police said that child's aunt, who killed herself by ingesting poison last week, remains the main suspect for the case of child abuse.

minlee@sph.com.sg