Newborn baby carved over 40 times with hot knife to cure her pneumonia(Photos)

A two-month-old Indian baby girl was branded with a hot knife by a local healer attempting to cure her pneumonia.

Shivani Seheriya had caught the life-threatening infection last month.In desperation, her poverty-stricken mother turned to her village tantric, a traditional therapist used in rural India, for help.

Somvati Seheriya, 22, had lost her first daughter to pneumonia a year earlier, and had refused to take her to see the healer at the time.

After this, she was convinced he could cure her newborn baby.Mrs Seheriya and her husband Giru, 23, from Sheopur, in Madhya Pradesh, central India, took Shivani to the healer on December 2nd.

He then burnt the child's abdomen with the hot knife over 40 times, convinced it would cure her illness.

However, Shivani's situation only got worse. After she returned home she developed severe fever.

Desperately worried, Mrs Seheriya and her husband rushed Shivani to the district government hospital where, after treating her for the burns and pneumonia, doctors late found she was suffering from Ventricular Septal Defect.
This is a condition where the wall between the two a chambers of the heart does not form, leaving a hole.

Dr Gobind Singh, the surgeon and orthopedic specialist who treated Shivani, said: 

'When Shivani was brought into the hospital her condition was very bad.She was gravely ill and had trouble breathing. Her abdomen was badly burnt and it was a sorry sight to see a little baby suffering so badly.'It is disturbing that tribal families still believe they would be cured with burns to their bodies.

'But I cannot blame them. They are illiterate and not informed about medical science, they don't understand.
'When we get such cases, we try to educate the parents, and explain the importance of bringing their children to us for better treatment.'

Culled from Dailymail UK