STUNNED doctors discovered a woman complaining of stomach ache had been carrying her unborn child for 60 YEARS.(visit the link for the full news article)
Huang Yijun, 92, of Huangjiaotan, southern China, was told by medics in 1948 that her child had died in the womb.
Doctors demanded £100 to remove it, so she walked away.
She said: "It was a huge sum at the time - more than the whole family earned in several years so I did nothing and ignored it.”
Consultant Xu Xianming, director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology department at the hospital, said: "Normally a dead foetus would decay. It’s very rare that Huang can be so healthy."
Originally posted by RFBurns
Probably because of the fluids inside the womb. But something tells me this is a tabloid tale. I do not think its medically possible for a woman to carry around a dead fetus for 60 years and not have any serious health problems from it than just a stomach ache.
Cheers!!!!
nonviable chronic ectopic pregnancy can result in formation of a lithopedion (litho = stone; pedion = child or "stone baby").
Lithopedion formation typically occurs in 1:20,000 pregnancies with fewer than 300 cases reported in the medical literature over the past 400 years. The condition was first described in a treatise by Albucasis in the 10th century AD. While the etiology is related to demise of an ectopic pregnancy, a lithopedion is more commonly encountered with a larger ectopic pregnancy, as can be seen from abdominal pregnancies. When the fetus is too large to be reabsorbed by the body (usually gestational age > 14 weeks), the fetus and/or its covering membranes calcify, shielding the mother's body from the degenerating fetal tissue.
A calcified extrauterine fetus can have the following forms: (i) lithokelyphos (litho = rock, kelyphos = shell): only the ovular membrane is calcified and the fetus can be in different stages of decomposition; (ii) lithokelyphopedion: both are calcified, i.e. fetus and ovular membrane, as in this case; (iii) lithopedion: only the fetus is calcified. It is not unusual for a lithopedion to remain undiagnosed for decades. A patient with a calcified extrauterine pregnancy may present with abdominal pain, lower abdominal pressure, or constipation. Based on reported cases, the patient's age at the time of diagnosis ranges from 23 to 100 years; 67% of the patients are over the age 40 years. The estimated lead time to diagnosis ranges from 4 years to 60 years.
Fetal demise occurred between a gestational age of three to six months in 20% of the reported cases, between seven and eight months in 27%, and at full term in 43%. The earliest lithopedion found was in an archaeological excavation, dating to 1100 BC, antedating the first clinical description by 2100 years. Based on reported cases, the patient's age at the time of diagnosis varies widely, with 67% of patients over fourty years of age.
Originally posted by bodrul
reply to post by gimme_some_truth
not really
this was on discovery channel a few weeks ago
except it was an egyption woman i think
might be another middle eastern country
