An elderly woman in Russia’s far east has lived her whole life with a 3cm-long needle in her brain, it was revealed after doctors made the unexpected discovery during a CT scan. Doctors believe the woman, 80, was the victim of a failed infanticide carried out by her parents, and said they would not attempt to remove the needle for fear of worsening her condition. In a statement on Wednesday, the local health department in the remote Russian region of Sakhalin said: “Such cases during years of famine were not uncommon.”Her parents probably decided to put their child to death during the second world war as she had been living with the 3cm-long needle “since birth”. This method was often used to hide evidence of the crime, it said. Food shortages were prevalent across the Soviet Union during the war, and many people lived in poverty. “The needle penetrated her left parietal lobe, but it did not have the intended effect – the girl survived,” the local health department, adding that the patient had never complained of headaches due to the injury and was not in any danger. “Her condition is being monitored by the attending physician,” it said.