[Deathofjocelynn]

Extremely rare, so extremely strange.

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."

A lithopedion (Greek: λίθος = stone; Greek: παιδός = child), or stone baby, is a rare phenomenon which occurs most commonly when a fetus dies during an abdominal pregnancy, is too large to be reabsorbed by the body, and calcifies on the outside, shielding the mother's body from the dead tissue of the baby and preventing infection. Lithopedia may occur from 14 weeks gestation to full term. It is not unusual for a stone baby to remain undiagnosed for decades, and it is often not until a patient is examined for other conditions or a proper examination is conducted that includes an X-ray, that a stone baby is found. The oldest reported case is that of a 92-year old woman, whose lithopedion has been present for upwards of 60 years.

The condition was first described in a treatise by the physician Albucasis in the 10th century AD, but fewer than 300 cases have been noted in 400 years of medical literature. The earliest lithopedion is one found in an archaeological excavation, dated to 1100 BC.

According to one report there are only 300 reported cases of stone baby in the world. On 04-Feb-2011, doctors in Andhra Pradesh, India removed a 35 year old stone baby from a woman.

[Sharon]

I've seen this Unbelievable

[Faline]

[Tyberius]

So if it's calcified does it means she can take it home and put it on a shelf?

[K9Grip]

Sharon do you remember the lady in a middle eastern country that was "pregnant" for like 40 years? When she had the baby removed they cut it in half and it was amazing to see!
I think I'd feel weird having a stone baby inside me.

[Kadavar]

Dam, i would go insane if i had something inside me.

[juliemd]

its amazing she didn't wonder why the baby didn't "come out".

[DiamondSmiles]

In some countries, the hospitals, apparently, are more frightening that giving birth. The woman who was pregnant for 40 years believed her baby, "went to sleep". It wasn't until she had severe pain all those years later, she went to a hospital.

She adopted a couple of kids after that. The fetus attached itself to some of her internal organs.

Some of the fetuses are a twin that never formed outside the living twin, (fetus en fetu, although spelling varies). They also appear in men. When they have the dark hair, they look like something out of a sci fi movie.

That fetus looks like he's ready to run away! Maybe he has a marathon planned.

[fattubbashit]

Awesome! Great post

[durt]