Syndactyly released on a 5-week child at home with razor blade by mother - Case report

Abstract

A 5-week old male infant brought into the Children Accident and Emergency of our hospital with a three-day history of bleeding from left index and middle fingers and fever of one-day duration. Mother used a new razor blade to separate fused index and middle digits which she noticed 4 days after the birth of child. Nil ante natal care and delivery was at a Christian mission home. Examination revealed an acutely ill child, pale, tachycardic with oedematous left hand with wounds on adjacent surfaces between the left index and middle fingers. Mother brought the very sock child to hospital twice and twice she declined admission because of for lack of fund.
This was a system failure which led to the mother having no ante natal care, delivering at non hospital setting, no competent examination of the baby at birth and inadequate treatment for a sick child.
We are recommending that all pregnant mothers should have access to routine free or affordable ante natal care and governments should provide free treatment for such children of indigent mothers to avoid this type induced complications.