You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Pregnant for 46 years!
- Thread starter Undecided
- Start date
While rare, it is not unknown.
WARNING: Gross and icky pictures, not work safe.
http://www.obgyn.net/ENGLISH/PUBS/ARTICLES/Stone_Baby.htm
http://path.upmc.edu/cases/case128/dx.html
WARNING: Gross and icky pictures, not work safe.
http://www.obgyn.net/ENGLISH/PUBS/ARTICLES/Stone_Baby.htm
Stone baby
by Dr. Andrew Folley
History
The patient is a 37-year-old Zairian female who lives in a village of Malongo at the headwaters of the Congo River. She presented with a relatively asymptomatic large abdominal mass. Examination revealed a distended abdomen with a very irregularly contoured mass present consistent with a large fibroid uterus 28-32 weeks size. The patient was having fairly regular periods. She has had eight previous pregnancies with five living children. Recommendation made for exploratory laparotomy through a midline incision with a working diagnosis of uterine leiomyomata.
Exploration through the midline incision revealed no free fluid present in the abdomen. The uterus and ovaries felt fairly normal to palpation. A large calcified spherical mass was delivered through the incision, enveloped with omental adhesions. At this point diagnosis was thought be possibly some type of splenic or mesenteric tumor. The diagnosis was finally made when a shoulder was delivered along with this mass. Finally, after the adhesions were removed, a four pound calcified fetus was removed. This appeared to be approximately a 32-week intra-abdominal pregnancy which had died and calcified.
In further questioning the patient, she stated that she had been pregnant about three years ago and everything seemed to be going fine, but "the baby never came out."
http://path.upmc.edu/cases/case128/dx.html
http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/20000106/20000106s5.htmlThe appearance of a calcified fetus or lithopedion may be evident if maturation is advanced. This can occur if there is retention of the fetus for many months beyond the average gestation. It is important to remember that a lithopedion does not need to be a twin. In one reported case, a 94-year-old woman was found to have a lithopedion, probably present for approximately 61 years.
Cancer surgery reveals 49-year-old 'fossil' fetus
Published: January 6, 2000
Source: Taiwan News
A 76-year-old woman was found to have carried a 20-gram (0.7 ounce) and 12-centimeter-long lithopaedion for 49 years.
Doctors at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei have recently discovered a "fossilized" fetus in the Abdomen of a 76-year-old woman, suffering from cervical cancer while operating to remove her womb.
According to a an examination report, the fetus was conceived 49 years ago, making it only the fourth such recorded phenomenon, said Yu Chien-jen, chief of the hospital's gynecology department.
Yu said doctors on Dec. 31 found a 20-gram (0.7 ounce) and 12-centimeter-long lithopaedion, the rocklike remains of a fetus hardened by calcium buildup, in the abdominal cavity of the woman surnamed Wu.
< snip >
The hospital said their research yielded only three known lithopaedions, and the earliest case dated back to 1582, when a 28-year old fetus was found in French woman.
The other two cases were reported in the United States. In 1995, the Lancet medical journal reported that a 92-year-old woman had a lithopaedion inside her body. In 1999, the Madigan Military Hospital in Washington D.C. said a 67-year-old woman had been found to have carried a calcified fetus for 39 years
eddymrsci said:Thor's hypothesis sound reasonable, but wouldn't the fetus decompose when it died?
Not if it was preserved inside the woman's womb. Also, the articles states that the unborn baby is fossilized. So there we go, an explanation