CHINESE people are so desperate for a son that when baby Pingping (not her real name) was born it is thought her relatives tried to kill her by jamming a needle into her head. Her death would have allowed the parents to try again under the strict "one couple, one child" family planning policy.

The little girl did not die. Now aged 11, she had surgery this week to remove the needle doctors believe was the cause of her mental deficiency.

The deputy director of the neurosurgery department at the military hospital where the girl was treated said there was a common belief that sticking a needle into the head would result in death.

Scan

The mother of Pingping said that she intended to bring charges against family members who may have been responsible for the attempted murder of her daughter. Police advised Yang Xiaohui to keep the needle, as well as a scan that showed the object buried in her daughter's head.

Ms Xiaohui said that she had been under great pressure to give birth to a son when she married Pingping's father, since he already had a daughter by his first wife. She aborted her first foetus after it was found to be a girl amid pressure from her mother-in-law.

However, she went ahead and gave birth to Pingping. She remembered that the baby barely cried after she was born, and then screamed non-stop. She ran a high temperature and had been troubled by unexplained fevers ever since.

Five years ago the couple took their daughter to hospital for high fever. It was then doctors told her that they had found a piece of metal in her head. (©The Times, London).

Irish Independent