Hospital staff in the city of Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong Province were in for a shock when they entered a new mother’s hospital room only to find her attempting to eat her own baby.

According to The Mirror, medical staff were in shock after they found a new mother attempting to eat her own child just days after delivery. A nurse found the woman, 24-year-old Li Zhenghua, with her jaws clamped firmly around the infant’s arm. The nurse called for help and tried to pull the baby free from the cannibal mother. However, the mother refused to let go, and doctors were forced to pry the mother’s jaw from the infant’s arm with a medical implement. After freeing the child, the medical staff sedated the woman.

News AU notes that the woman, who is believed to be mentally ill, had been discovered heavily pregnant and in labor on the street and brought to the local hospital for delivery. The woman delivered her baby, and medical staff attempted to contact family members. Nursing staff left the woman alone in the room to nurse her baby, and all seemed well. However, three days after delivery, the shocking attack took place. Medical staff later found out that the woman had been tossed from her home after “behaving oddly.” After being kicked from her home by her mother-in-law, the woman remained on the streets for several weeks before she was later found in labor and taken to the hospital.

A hospital spokesman told media that the child’s arm was badly damaged and that the staff was able to take the baby to a secure location following the attack.

“It was really shocking; the arm was badly damaged and suffered not only heavy bruising but bleeding as a result of the bite. Fortunately, doctors managed to insert something to stop her closing her teeth and then levered her jaws apart. After that they gave her a sedative and took the baby to a secure location.”

The police are now investigating what caused the woman to attack the baby and trying to determine if the baby should be officially confiscated from both the mother and her husband’s family, who seem to no longer want anything to do with woman or possibly a the baby.

Do you think the police should even consider sending the baby back with the cannibal mother or the father after he kicked the mentally-ill pregnant woman out into the streets?