When doctors take an X-ray of a patient, it's usually done so they can find abnormalities or diseases of the blood vessels, bones, airways, lungs or even the heart. So it must have been rather shocking when instead of a regular abnormality, they found something even more abnormal: a 50-year-old fetus.
In Chile, after she fell, a 92-year-old woman went to a hospital in San Antonio to get examined. During the examination, according to the BBC, doctors found a 50-year-old fetus inside her.
The calcified fetus, which weighs 4.4 pounds according to NewsOXY, was discovered outside the woman's uterus. There is actually a term for a fetus found in this state: lithopedion. Otherwise known as "stomach rock" or "stone child," the term stems from the Greek words for stone ("litho") and child ("pedion").
This is an exceedingly rare occurrence, according to the blog Lithopedionbaby, affecting only a few women around the world. It happens when a fertilized egg is implanted outside the uterus, also known as an ectopic pregnancy. The fetus takes up the entirety of the woman's abdominal cavity yet, surprisingly, the woman doesn't feel any discomfort.
Doctors decided not to remove the fetus from the patient in Chile because the surgery can be too dangerous for someone her age.
