A mother has died from severe malnutrition after carrying an unborn fetus for around nine years inside her body.
According to DailyMail, "....the scans revealed the 50-year-old had a 'stone baby' — a calcified fetus — compressed her intestines, which was attributed to a miscarriage nine years prior."
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| Scan showing Lithopedion | image credit: DailyMail |
The fetus, which would have been the woman's ninth child, stopped developing inside her at twenty-Eight weeks (28).
Also, instead of having a miscarriage, she suffered the condition known as lithopedion.
Lithopedion is a cronic condition that occurs when pregnancy forms in the abdomen instead of the uterus.
It is an ectopic pregnancy, a term for all pregnancies where the embryo begins to form in the wrong part of the body.
In cases of lithopedion, not enough blood supply reaches the baby, causing the pregnancy to fail.
Report by DailyMail tells that "..the patient refused treatment, saying she believed her health condition was related to a 'spell' that someone cast on her in Africa."
Sadly, the woman died 14 months after arriving in the United States.
Doctors said she died from severe malnutrition, or starvation.
For this woman, the 'stone baby' kept compressing the intestine. This caused blockages, meaning her body was no longer able to absorb vital nutrients, leading to starvation.
Lithopedion is a very deadly condition if not properly taken care of. Early scan of pregnancy is a guide to what is inside the womb for Doctors to know how best to handle whatever is inside a pregnant woman.