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BY INGRID BROWN Senior staff reporter [email protected]
CHILDREN as young as four years old have been treated for gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes and HIV at the Bustamante Hospital for Children after being raped by close family members including their fathers.
So overwhelming is the number of cases seen at the hospital yearly that one doctor is speaking out in the hope that more will be done by both individuals and communities to protect the nation's children, many of whom endure months and years of abuse before they are eventually rescued.
Dr Sandra A Knight, a general practitioner who has worked with the paediatric hospital in Kingston for the past 11 years, said more of these young patients are being brought in for sexually transmitted infections.
"The hospital sees several alleged sexual assault cases each year with the victims being anywhere from babies to 12 years old," she told the Jamaica Observer.
Many of these children are usually not taken to the hospital until they start to experience symptoms associated with the vagina, penis or anus.
Dr Knight said she treats an average of eight such cases each year while some of her colleagues see up to 13 children annually at the hospital.
Recalling some of the most disturbing cases she has dealt with during her tenure at the hospital, Dr Knight said they continue to have a long-lasting impact on her, personally.
One which still traumatises her to this day is the case of a nine-year-old boy who was buggered by the pastor his mother left him with while she went to work.
Although the boy became withdrawn and lost his appetite, the buggery was not discovered until his teacher complained that he was defecating on himself while at school.
Dr Knight said when the mother took him to the hospital his penis was swollen and scarred and his anus torn.
"You could literally look up the child's anus to the rectum," Dr Knight said.
The child later revealed that the pastor had been raping him for some time and would give him $20 each time he had sex with him.
I dont even know what to say...
CHILDREN as young as four years old have been treated for gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes and HIV at the Bustamante Hospital for Children after being raped by close family members including their fathers.
So overwhelming is the number of cases seen at the hospital yearly that one doctor is speaking out in the hope that more will be done by both individuals and communities to protect the nation's children, many of whom endure months and years of abuse before they are eventually rescued.
Dr Sandra A Knight, a general practitioner who has worked with the paediatric hospital in Kingston for the past 11 years, said more of these young patients are being brought in for sexually transmitted infections.
"The hospital sees several alleged sexual assault cases each year with the victims being anywhere from babies to 12 years old," she told the Jamaica Observer.
Many of these children are usually not taken to the hospital until they start to experience symptoms associated with the vagina, penis or anus.
Dr Knight said she treats an average of eight such cases each year while some of her colleagues see up to 13 children annually at the hospital.
Recalling some of the most disturbing cases she has dealt with during her tenure at the hospital, Dr Knight said they continue to have a long-lasting impact on her, personally.
One which still traumatises her to this day is the case of a nine-year-old boy who was buggered by the pastor his mother left him with while she went to work.
Although the boy became withdrawn and lost his appetite, the buggery was not discovered until his teacher complained that he was defecating on himself while at school.
Dr Knight said when the mother took him to the hospital his penis was swollen and scarred and his anus torn.
"You could literally look up the child's anus to the rectum," Dr Knight said.
The child later revealed that the pastor had been raping him for some time and would give him $20 each time he had sex with him.
I dont even know what to say...
Mi cood'n get pass di furss line to raxtone. 
they trying to draw attention away from their lifestyle, blastid hypocrite
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