Chelsea Connor
Doctors made a surprising discovery after finding a ‘stone baby’ in a 73-year-old's stomach.
The human body is an amazing - but quite terrifying - thing.
From a tumor filled with human teeth (don't Google it) to the accidental discovery of a new organ, who knows what we'll find out next?
But doctors were left baffled after discovering an unusual growth in the abdomen of a 73-year-old woman.
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A woman from Algeria was rushed to the emergency department after suffering from intense abdominal pains.
After looking at scans to try and diagnose the problem, doctors were shocked to find a ‘baby made of stone’ in her fallopian tube on the scan.
They then conducted studies of her abdomen and found she had a 'lithopedion'.
But what exactly is a lithopedion?
Well, according to the National Library of Medicine, it is 'a very rare condition and refers to an ectopic pregnancy that evolves to fetal death and calcification'.
And doctor Karan Raj elaborated further on his TikTok channel, saying: "This is when a foetus dies during an abdominal ectopic pregnancy.
"An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.”
The NHS says that ectopic pregnancy cannot be saved due to the risk it possesses to the mother's health if the baby continues to grow - with surgery usually being the only option.
Dr Raj continued: "This is an incredibly rare type of ectopic pregnancy when the foetus grows outside the uterus.
"If the deceased foetus is too large to be reabsorbed by the mother's body, it becomes a foreign body to the mother's immune system."
The foetus is then 'calcified' and 'mummified' in the area of the mother's body that it is growing in.
The National Library of Medicine also says that most people are 'asymptomatic' and any diagnosis is usually 'is usually made incidentally on imaging studies'.
And, in the case of this woman, the dead foetus that she was carrying was 35-years-old.
After learning about the unsettling phenomenon, viewers of Dr Raj’s TikTok seemed to be pretty shocked, with one viewer saying: “Isn't it crazy what our bodies can do naturally?"
Another said: "Everyday on this app is another day learning about how pregnancy is actually body horror."
A third said: "That poor woman." And a fourth said: "New fear unlocked."
As frightening as it might sound, this is a very rare situation - with it occurring in only 0.0054 percent of all gestations, according to the National Library of Medicine.
So the chances are very slim.