An 82-year-old woman who went to the hospital in Bogota, Columbia complaining of stomach pains had a stone fetus removed from her body, the Huffington Post reported.
The Columbian woman got the surprise of her life when doctors saw an X-ray and discovered a 40-year-old calcified fetus - or lithopedion - in the abdomen of the woman. The woman reportedly was unaware of the fetus in her stomach.
According to the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph, the 40-year-old calcified fetus was the result of an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, which is a pregnancy that occurs outside the womb.
Health officials at the hospital said this case is rarely seen in the field of medical science.
Lithopedion, also known as stone baby, is a very rare syndrome that happens when the fetus grows outside the uterus and inside the abdomen. According to the Huffington Post, the syndrome occurs only once in every 11,000 pregnancies. If the fetus becomes so large that it cannot be absorbed back into the body, it mummifies, with a layer of calcium protecting the mother's body from the dead tissue of the baby.
It's not uncommon for stone babies to go undiagnosed for decades. Women usually aren't aware of this disease because their bodies are protected from the dead tissue.
The Colombian woman will now undergo surgery so that the fetus can be removed. A similar case occurred in 2009, when Huang Yijun, 92, of southern China, delivered a child which she'd been carrying for more than 50 years.
During that time, Dr Natalie Burger, an endocrinologist and fertility specialist in Texas, told NBC News that lithopedions started off as ectopic pregnancies - a condition where the fertilized egg becomes stuck as it travels to the womb and develops outside of the uterus.
"Usually an ectopic pregnancy will mean a [fallopian] tubal pregnancy, but in a small percentage of cases, the pregnancy can actually occur in the abdominal cavity -- in places like the bowel, the ovary, or even on the aorta," she said. "These are very rare locations and they can be very dangerous."
