ROUTINE TESTING REVEALED a Chilean 92-year-old grandmother has been bearing a large mummified fetus for at least 50 years, medical sources said today.
The fetus, weighing nearly two kilos (four pounds) was discovered after the woman was rushed to a hospital after suffering a fall.
A hip X-ray showed the fetus, which was about seven months developed, but it did not cause the woman any pain.
The rare condition is known as lithopedion and occurs when a fetus dies during pregnancy and then calcifies outside the uterus.
According to the US National Library of Medicine, only around 330 cases have been noted in medical history, and it is not unusual for the condition to be undiagnosed for decades.
One Indian study from last year described the case of a 60-year-old woman who had a lump in her abdomen, and had been experiencing pain for the previous two months.
Surgeons later found the skeleton of a fetus, which they concluded had been there since 1978.
In today’s case, the Chilean woman returned home a few hours after being checked out, without an operation, AFP reports.
Contains reporting by AFP.
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