A 81-year-old woman from Aral Moreira, Brazil, Daniela Vera, has died after undergoing surgery to remove a 56-year-old lithopedion, a calcified foetus, from her abdomen.
Daniela had unknowingly carried the foetus since her youth, with doctors dismissing her complaints of stomach pain over the years.
As reported by NDTV, on Friday, Vera visited a local health centre on March 10, where she received treatment for a urinary tract infection. Subsequently, she was referred to another hospital where she underwent 3D scans.
The scan was conducted after she was transferred to Ponta Pora Regional Hospital in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul, following a generalised infection contracted from a prior visit to a hospital closer to her home for treatment of the urinary infection.
The scan revealed lithopedion, a condition derived from Greek words meaning ‘stone’ and ‘child,’ wherein an abdominal ectopic pregnancy becomes calcified around the foetus.
Despite having seven children, the presence of the calcified foetus went unnoticed until the scans revealed it.
Following surgery, Daniela was transferred to intensive care, where she passed away on March 15 due to complications from an infection.
Prior to the discovery of the lithopedion, medical experts had initially suspected cancer. They have since 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 Ponta Pora Hospital health department, said: ‘When pregnancy occurs, it must be inside the uterus, but in some situations, pregnancy can occur outside.
‘That baby was not clinical, the patient did not have acute pain and did not have major bleeding and this diagnosis goes unnoticed and time will take care of that foreign body that was left inside the woman’s abdomen.’
Vera’s child, Rosely Almedia, said: ‘She was old and we are indigenous, she didn’t like going to the doctor, she was afraid of the equipment to take exams.
Vera had complained of abdominal pain since her first pregnancy when she was a teenager, her daughter said.
Rosely added: ‘She said so it looked like a baby was moving inside her belly and sometimes she felt sick, but we never suspected that it was that.
In 2013, something similar happened to an 82-year-old woman in Colombia. She had a stone baby in her belly for 40 years.
For many years, the four-pound fetus stayed in her belly until she had surgery to take it out.
Lithopedion is very rare, happening in only 0.0054% of pregnancies.
