A large 4.4 pound calcified fetus was outside the woman’s uterus. Known as a lithopedion, sometimes called a “stomach rock” or a “stone child,” this is a rare occurrence affecting just a few women. “Litho” comes from the Greek word that means “stone,” and the suffix “pedion” (also Greek) means “child.” This happens when the fertilized egg is implanted outside of the uterus (known as an ectopic pregnancy) according to lithopedionbaby.wordpress.com.
The director of the hospital, Marco Vargas Lazo, called the case “extraordinarily rare.” While things like this do happen, and have been reported in the past, very few cases have been confirmed over the years. Doctors will not be removing the fetus, even though it takes up the woman’s entire abdominal cavity. The risk is too great, and the surgery can be dangerous, especially for someone at an advanced age.
The 50-year-old fetus has not been causing the woman any discomfort, which is another reason doctors don’t feel the need to remove it.
According to dbTechno, doctors say that the fetus died in the woman’s third trimester, and was about seven months developed at the time. The woman has already been sent home from the hospital, maybe or maybe not aware that she is one of 300 cases of lithopedion that has been recorded over the past 400 years.
“A study published in 2000 in the Sao Paulo Medical Journaldefined just how rare: the phenomenon happens in just 1.5% to 1.8% of the abdominal pregnancies that occur—and the incidence of those are 1 in 11,000.”
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, most of these cases are found in elderly women. In 2014, a Brazilian woman was admitted to the hospital after suffering from stomach pains. Doctors found a 44-year-old fetus in her abdomen. In 2013, an elderly woman from Columbia was taken to the hospital because of similar symptoms. Doctors found a 40-year-old fetus inside her body. Doctors decide on surgery on a case by case basis, but most prefer to leave the lithopedion alone.
