WHEN AN ELDERLY woman presented herself with abdominal pains, doctors thought she was suffering from gastro-enteritis. The reality, was that the pain was being caused by a 40-year-old foetus inside the woman’s body.
The 82-year-old Colombian woman went to Bogota’s Tunjuelito Hospital complaining of a stomach ache, when a radiography exam discovered calcified foetus or ‘lithopaedian’ inside her.
This rare syndrome occurs when a foetus implants outside the uterus, and is also known as a ‘stone baby’. If the foetus is too large to be absorbed back into the body, it begins to calcify and becomes mummified to protect the mother.
Dr. Kemer Ramirez from the Tunjuelito Hospital told NTDTV that:
This happens because the fetus does not develop in the uterus because it has moved to another place. In this case, the abdominal part of the woman is not a viable (place) and this is what happened, a calcified fetus because the body is generating defense mechanisms and it is calcified until it stays there encapsulated.
The condition is extremely rare, with less than 300 cases recorded according to the Daily Mail.
The woman is set to undergo surgery to have it removed.
