An 84-year old woman suffering from stomach pain recently discovered she was carrying a 44-year-old fetus inside her womb, according to the Daily Mail.
The woman, who is from Brazil, was admitted to a hospital in Natividade, Tocantins, after she complained of severe stomach pains and dizziness. Medics who scanned her stomach were surprised to see the 20 to 28-week old stone baby inside her womb.
The woman, whose name was not disclosed due to privacy constraints, told her doctors that she became pregnant 44 years earlier. At the time, there will still no qualified doctors in her village and so she opted to go to a witch doctor instead. The witch doctor prescribed her with a medication that, she said, made her feel better instantly.
After that, the woman's womb stopped growing so she thought that the fetus had been aborted. However, despite the death of the fetus, it still remained inside her.
"Through ultrasound it was not possible to see the fetus," said Dr. Sariava Kratka, a hospital gynaecologist from Porto Nacional. "We saw it with X-rays. It was possible to see the face, the bones of the arms, of the legs, the ribs, and the spine. It's supernatural but she has not had any complications."
Though rare, the condition, known as lithopedion or "stone baby," is not unheard of. In December, an 82-year-old woman from Colombia was found carrying a 40-year old fetus inside of her.
