Pregnant Woman Hammers Nail Into Her Skull For Male Child; Hunt On For Faith Healer

In a horrific incident, a pregnant woman reportedly turned up at a hospital with a nail stuck in her head. Authorities believe the woman hammered the nail into her head on the instruction of a faith healer so that she can give birth to a male child.

The incident came to light Tuesday, days after the woman was rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital in the Pakistani city of Peshawar with a severe head injury, reported The Express Tribune. The nail was surgically removed by the doctors.

According to Dr. Haider Suleman, a resident neurosurgeon at the hospital, the victim was bleeding and was given first aid before being taken to the operation theatre.

"She said that a woman in her locality did the same [hammered a nail] and gave birth to a boy even though the ultrasound had shown her unborn child to be a girl," the doctor told Dawn.

However, it is not clear whether the faith healer hammered the nail into her skull or if she did it to herself.

The nail had penetrated deep within the victim's skull and the woman was unconscious. The doctor added that her family had tried to remove the nail from the patient's head at her home. "They tried to remove it at home, but could not," he said.

Reports added that the victim was a mother to three daughters and was threatened by her husband that he would leave her if she gave birth to another girl. "She is three months pregnant and because of her husband's fear, she went to the faith healer who gave her things to recite and the nail. The victim then returned home and hammered the nail in her head. She was discovered by family members after she screamed in pain and was shifted to the hospital," the hospital staff was quoted by The Dawn.

The pictures of the woman's skull with the nail hammered on it went viral soon. The incident came to the notice of the Peshawar Police who constituted a special team to identify and arrest the faith healer.

"The team will also investigate why [the] incident was not reported to [the] police by the treating doctor," Peshawar police chief Abbas Ahsan told Dawn.