A small needle embedded in an octogenarian’s brain was probably there for her whole life following an attempted infanticide during World War II, Russian doctors say.

A CT scan showing the 3cm-long foreign body in the left parietal lobe was posted to the messaging site Telegram by the Ministry of Health for the eastern island region of Sakhalin last week. 

While the reason for imaging was unclear, the post included a grim theory for the incidental finding. 

Roughly translated, it claimed that families that could not feed a child during wartime famine would kill newborns by piercing the baby’s fontanelle and brain with a needle.