Doctors Baffled After Finding Needle Lodged Inside A Woman’s Brain For 46 Years

A middle-aged Chinese mum is finally set to have a 4.6cm-long needle removed from her brain - which has been mysteriously lodged there ever since she was a very young child.

Liu Kao, from Huaibei in Anhui Province, said she’d always suffered from painful headaches throughout her entire life.

They were worse in autumn and winter when the temperatures dipped.

The 48-year-old underwent several tests, and initially thought it could be a problem with her heart.

But she recently checked into hospital again after enduring a sudden numbness across half of her body.

And doctors were stunned to find, after a CT scan of her head, that the cause was a 4.6cm-long needle embedded in her brain.

Scan images show it is standing straight up in the left hemisphere, and she will require a craniotomy to have it removed.

“My mother and I were both puzzled by the needle. We have no idea how it got there, but it seems to be what is causing her headaches,” said her daughter Xiaozhang.

“Mother has no recollection of the needle being inserted in her head, but doctors said it must have happened before she was 18 months old, when her skull was still soft and flexible as a child,” she added.

Medics think the needle has been stuck in place for at least 46 years. A date for Liu’s surgery has not yet been revealed.

(Image courtesy of CEN)