An 80-year-old woman has been living with a three-centimetre-long needle in her brain that was intended to kill her at birth, amazed medics have discovered.
The woman, who has not been named, had been undergoing a CT scan when the needle was found.
Bue the gruesome truth of the discovery only emerged when health officials in Sakhalin, Russia, began to investigate the discovery.
The patient was born in 1943 when Russia was under siege from Nazi Germany in World War II with millions of Soviets starving to death.
Doctors, say officials, would often kill babies by inserting a small needle into their brain.
Ministry of Health officials in Sakhalin Oblast said in a statement obtained by Newsflash on 4th October: “Regional radiologists encountered an interesting case – they discovered a three-centimeter needle in the brain of an 80-year-old patient.
“A woman has been living with a foreign body since birth, so the parents decided to kill the child in difficult times of war.
“Such cases were not uncommon during the famine years. A thin needle was inserted into the baby’s fontanel, which damaged the brain.
“The fontanel quickly closed, hiding the traces of the crime.
“The needle penetrated the left parietal lobe, but this did not lead to the expected consequences – the girl survived.
“Moreover, she never suffered from headaches afterwards.
“The foreign body was discovered only this year during a computed tomography scan.”
Medics, though, have decided not to remove the needle.
The ministry said: “The patient’s health is not in danger; her condition is being monitored by the attending physician.
“It was decided not to perform surgical intervention, as this could only worsen her condition.”