An Indian woman now holds the record for the world's longest ectopic pregnancy after doctors removed the skeleton of a baby that was inside her for almost 40 years, The Daily Mail reported.
Jyoti Kumar, 62, from Madhya Pradesh in central India, became pregnant in 1978 when she was 24. Doctors at the time warned Kumar that her child had almost no chance of survival after it was found to be growing outside of her womb. When she was told she had to undergo an operation, she became terrified and fled.
After fleeing, she sought treatment for the pain she experienced in a small clinic. Months later the pain dissipated and Kumar was convinced the problem was gone. But 38 years later, she started to experience constant, bothersome pain in her stomach again.
Doctors felt a lump on the lower right side of her abdomen and thought it was cancer. Sonography confirmed the lump, according to The Times of India.
A CT scan revealed the mysterious lump was made of hard, calcified matter. Doctors were finally able to make out that the mass was a child's skeleton when she underwent an MRI. The matured skeleton inside a calcified sac was found between the uterus, the intestines and bladder, densely stuck to all the organs. The mass was compressing the urinary system and compromising kidney function.
A team of surgeons, including Dr. Mohammad Yunus Shah, operated to remove the bones of the ectopic pregnancy.
"She apparently knew that the baby had died and that she would need an operation and we gathered she got scared at the prospect of surgery and so she went away to her village without undergoing the operation," Shah told The Daily Mail.
A woman in Belgium also retained the remains of an ectopic pregnancy. She had the remains inside of her for 18 years, the longest time before Kumar, according the The Times of India.
