By Tim Binnall
Authorities in Pakistan are on the hunt for a self-described faith healer who is accused of hammering a two-inch-long nail into the head of a pregnant woman with the promise that it would ensure that she gave birth to a boy. The jaw-dropping incident reportedly came to light earlier this week when the unnamed patient sought help from doctors at the Lady Reading Hospital in the city of Peshawar. Said to have been "fully conscious, but in immense pain," the woman offered rather heartbreaking explanation for her bizarre condition.
Having already given birth to three daughters, the patient said that her husband was going to leave her if their fourth child was also a girl. Desperate to keep their family intact, the woman turned to a local faith healer who purportedly possessed the power to influence the gender of the baby, albeit by way of some truly dangerous 'black magic' wherein he hammered the two-inch-long nail into her skull. Shortly thereafter, the woman was understandably in agony from the 'procedure' wound up being admitted to the hospital when her own attempts to remove the object proved to be futile. Doctors subsequently extracted the nail from the woman's skull and she was discharged from the hospital.
When the astounding x-ray of her nail-embedded skull wound up online, police in Pakistan took notice and set about investigating the case. Amazingly, the woman was able to leave the hospital without ever revealing her identity, leading authorities to scour security camera footage from her visit in the hopes of figuring out who she was. Peshawar police chief Abbas Ahsan indicated that the department hopes to track down the patient and, ultimately, find the faith healer who left her in such a perilous state. Expressing outrage over the individual who "played with the life of an innocent woman and put a nail in her head," he assured the public that "we will soon lay our hands on the sorcerer" and bring the wicked wizard to justice.