An 80-year-old woman in a remote Russian region of Sakhalin has lived her whole life with a needle in her brain — likely because she was a victim of a failed infanticide, local health authorities reported Wednesday.
Her doctors found the foreign object during a CT scan, the Sakhalin Health Department said in a statement, adding that the woman’s health is not in danger and that the needle did not cause any noticeable ailments throughout her life, including headaches.
The health department released CT scan images on Telegram, which show different views of the needle lodged into the woman’s brain.
Sakhalin Health Department
The woman was born in 1943, during World War II, as the Soviet army was putting up a fierce fight against German offensives, and the local population struggled with food shortages. The health department noted that the woman’s parents likely tried to put their newborn child to death, thinking they could not feed her.
“Such cases during years of famine were not uncommon: a thin needle was inserted into the baby’s fontanelle, which damaged the brain,” the department said in a statement. “The fontanelle quickly closed, hiding the traces of a crime, and the baby died.”
Doctors said they opted not to surgically remove the needle, saying it may cause more harm in the process.
“The needle penetrated her left parietal lobe, but it did not have the intended effect – the girl survived,” the statement said.
The woman’s doctors said they will continue to monitor her condition.
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