[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] The story of a 75-year-old Algerian woman who carried a mummified fetus inside her body for 35 years has been shared.
On the 26th (local time), the British daily The Sun reported the story of a 73-year-old woman after a rare case of lithopedion occurred at a medical clinic in Skikda, eastern Algeria.
The woman, who had been living her daily life without any symptoms, suddenly experienced abdominal pain and underwent a hospital examination. The test results revealed that she was carrying a 7-month-old, 4.5-pound (about 2 kg) lithopedion in her abdomen.
A lithopedion usually occurs when a deceased fetus, such as in an ectopic pregnancy, cannot be expelled from the body. The deceased fetus is not expelled and undergoes calcification, becoming a lithopedion.
Dr. Kim Garci of the Cleveland nonprofit medical organization explained, "Our immune system calcifies the deceased fetus," adding, "There are no symptoms, so most people take no action before or after discovering specific symptoms."
It was understood that the woman had been carrying a calcified fetus for 35 years after miscarrying a 7-month-old baby in her youth. Nevertheless, she reportedly lived without feeling any significant abnormalities in her body during that time.
Meanwhile, lithopedion is extremely rare, with about 300 cases reported worldwide over approximately 400 years. Previously, in 2013, a 40-year-old lithopedion was discovered in an 82-year-old woman in Colombia. She found out after visiting the hospital for pelvic pain and undergoing an X-ray.
Also, a 60-year-old woman in India, who had been suffering from abdominal pain for over two months, visited a hospital in 2015 and discovered she had a 36-year-old lithopedion inside her abdomen.
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