A woman named Daniela Vera, aged 81, from Aral Moreira, Brazil, passed away after having an operation to take out a 56-year-old lithopedion, which is a calcified foetus, from her stomach.
Daniela had unknowingly carried the foetus since her youth, with doctors ignoring her stomach pain complaints over the years.
According to NDTV, Vera went to a local health centre on March 10 for treatment of a urinary tract infection. She was then referred to another hospital, where she had 3D scans done.
Following a generalised infection from a previous hospital visit for the urinary infection, she was transferred to Ponta Pora Regional Hospital in Mato Grosso do Sul, where the scan revealed the lithopedion.
The scan showed that lithopedion is a condition where an abdominal ectopic pregnancy becomes calcified around the foetus, stemming from Greek words meaning ‘stone’ and ‘child.’
Although she had given birth to seven children, the calcified foetus remained unnoticed until the scans brought it to light.
After the surgery, Daniela was moved to intensive care, where she died on March 15 due to complications from an infection.
Before discovering the lithopedion, doctors had suspected cancer. It was later determined that Daniela had been carrying the deceased foetus in her body since her last pregnancy over five decades ago.
Dr Patrick Dezir, the head of the health department at Ponta Pora Hospital, explained: ‘Pregnancy usually occurs inside the uterus, but in some cases, it can occur outside.
‘The baby was not causing acute pain, significant bleeding, and the patient didn't display any obvious signs, so this diagnosis went unnoticed, and the foreign body inside her abdomen was left to be taken care of by time.’
Vera’s daughter, Rosely Almedia, commented: ‘As she was elderly and we are indigenous, she was hesitant to visit the doctor and fearful of the examination equipment.
Vera had been experiencing abdominal pain since her first pregnancy as a teenager, as per her daughter.
Rosely added: ‘She explained that it felt like a baby was moving in her belly and she sometimes felt unwell, but we never suspected it was that.
In 2013, an 82-year-old woman in Colombia had a similar experience, carrying a stone baby in her belly for 40 years.
The four-pound foetus stayed in her belly for many years until she had surgery to remove it.
Lithopedion is extremely rare, occurring in only 0.0054% of pregnancies.
