Rusty needle removed from young girls head.

A young Chinese girl recently had surgery to remove a needle that was lodged in her head the needle inside the child’s brain had pierced a main blood vessel, and had caused the child to be under developed with mental deficiencies. The young girl was treated at a military hospital in the south western city of Chengdu, the deputy director of the neurosurgery department at the hospital had stated “there was a common belief in the countryside that sticking a needle into the head would result in death.”

In China people are often so desperate for a son in the family it is thought the little girls relatives tried to kill her by jamming the needle into her head. The mother had previously aborted a baby after it was discovered it was to be a girl following pressure from her mother in law, however on becoming pregnant a second time with a girl she carried on with the pregnancy. The mother of the child guesses the needle had probably been inserted when her child was only about 4 days old as that was when she started noticing changes. The mother of the child has said that she would try to bring charges against the relatives who were responsible for the attempted murder of her daughter.

This is not an uncommon practice in China as they operate a strict one couple, one child family planning policy many baby girls are often killed by relatives or dumped into orphanages so the family can try again for a son.

Picture courtesy of Philip Jagenstedt

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