14 DAY TRIAL // Late last week, an 84-year-old woman checked into a hospital in Brazil's Tocantins state. She accused both stomach pains and dizziness, which is why doctors decided to X-ray her abdomen.
With the help of this test, it was discovered that the woman was carrying a fetus inside her womb.
The baby is estimated to have stopped developing somewhere between the 20th and the 28th week of pregnancy, and appears to have been inside the pensioner for several decades.
Thus, the woman admitted that she became pregnant 44 years ago, and that, because the pregnancy was making her ill, she tried to have the baby aborted.
Due to the fact that there were no medical specialists in her village at that time, the woman asked for help from a witch doctor, Daily Mail reports.
The latter gave her medication that the pensioner says helped her feel better and got the fetus in her womb to stop growing or moving.
Consequently, the woman assumed that she was no longer pregnant and carried on with her life. However, the baby was not actually aborted, and instead remained hidden inside her body.
Over the years, it became engulfed in calcium, which is why it now feels and looks like a baby-shaped block of stone.
Although the presence of an undeveloped child in her womb hadn't caused the woman any discomfort for 44 years, the health issues that put her in a hospital last Friday might indicate that her body can no longer deal with carrying a dead fetus all that well.
Shortly after doctors at the hospital in Natividade, in Brazil's Tocantins state found the stone baby, the woman, whose name has not yet been shared with the public, was sent to Porto Nacional Hospital near Palmas.
Here, she was subjected to more tests, and specialists were able to get a better idea of what the so-called stone baby inside her looked like.
“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,” doctor Gesneria Saraiva Kratka told the press.
Despite the fact that specialists are concerned about the possibility that, if not removed, the fetus can cause the woman serious health problems, the pensioner says that, at least for the time being, she is not willing to undergo surgery and part with it.
The doctors in charge of looking after the woman hope that her family will get her to change her mind.
“We are going to perform some new tests, scans to see more details and then we will speak with her relatives to see if they allow us to operate,” explained doctor Gesneria Saraiva Kratka.