Doctors finally discovered what was living inside this woman for 50 years

Estela Melendez had something called a ‘Lithopedion’. This phenomenon is so rare that there are only 300 recorded cases in the history of medicine.

Doctors first thought it was a tumour

When she was 92 years old, this woman from Chile discovered that she had a fifty-year-old foetus in her abdomen. After she had a fall, she went to the hospital where doctors informed her about the strange discovery. The elderly woman was shocked and flabbergasted.

50 years ago, she went to the doctor because she had a big bump in her stomach. But at the time, physicians didn’t realise that she had an ‘unborn’ child in her belly and initially suspected something else. She told BBC News.

The doctor said I had a tumour

Estela was just one of the women who simply didn’t realise she was pregnant. It was only when she went to the hospital after her fall that doctors took an X-ray and finally solved the problem.

Calcified foetuses, also known as Lithopedions, are extremely rare and there are only 300 recorded cases in the history of medicine. The only thing that might be rarer is cases of mothers not giving birth to their first child until they are over the age of 70.