A 50-year-old mother died due to severe malnutrition after carrying an unborn fetus for nearly a decade inside her body.
Woman With an Unborn Fetus Inside Her Body
The unnamed woman was originally from Congo. She visited doctors in New York complaining of stomach pains, indigestion, and gurgling sound after eating.
The scans revealed that she had a "stone baby" or a calcified fetus, compressed inside her intestines, which was attributed to a miscarriage nine years ago, Daily Mail reported.
According to the doctors, the woman died due to starvation or malnutrition because the fetus was blocking her small intestine. As a result, she could no longer absorb vital nutrients, which led to starvation.
Death may be caused by tissue degradation leading to cardiac arrest or cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat. Other causes could be infection due to a weakened immune system.
Dr. Waseem Sous, an internal medicine expert at SUNY Upstate Medical University, said the woman declined intervention due to fear of surgery. She died 14 months after arriving in the United States.
What Is Stone Baby?
Stone babies are usually the result of ectopic pregnancy when the fetus develops outside the womb. The condition of having a stone baby is called "lithopaedion." It occurs when an abdominal pregnancy is terminated, and the fetus is not expelled.
This condition is very rare, with only 300 to 400 cases reported. It is not dangerous. Women diagnosed with this condition carried the remains of their unborn fetus for years, with some over 50 years.
The condition is detected when investigating abdominal pains, irregular bleeding, or an accidental finding. Lithopaedion only occurs when the fetus has developed for 14 weeks or more.
The condition is one of the many pregnancy complications with long-term health impacts on the mother.
According to those who experienced it, some symptoms they noticed include irregular bleeding and spotting, abrupt menses, urination problems due to the pressure on the bladder, and unexplained bulges in their stomach. However, the aforementioned conditions are not exclusively linked to the presence of lithopaedion.
A similar case was reported in 2015 in Chile. Estela Melendez, 91, went to the hospital after falling and was shocked when she learned she had a tumor. She was told that she needed surgery, she said in a video interview with CNN. However, a second X-ray revealed that it was not a tumor but a fetus - a calcified fetus, and she had been carrying it for over 60 years, according to The Washington Post.
Melendez has had a small bump on her stomach due to her stone baby for five decades. However, she hasn't had any serious health problems other than occasional pain.
According to The Washington Post, forming a stone baby is a brilliant protective measure for the mom's immune system. The calcified layer surrounding the baby protects the mother from the unborn fetus' dead tissue, which would otherwise likely cause an infection.
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