Esta Meléndez, a 91-year old woman living in La Boca, Chile, got a very rare surprise when she went in for a doctor’s appointment for an isolated injury and left with the information that she’d been carrying a calcified fetus for over 50 years.
This rare circumstance is called a “lithopedion” and it occurs in approximately 1 out of 11,000 pregnancies. According to a report, only 300 known cases have been documented.
What happens in cases like this is that a pregnancy happens outside of the womb, usually in the abdomen. In most cases, this results in a miscarriage. However, some times after the fetus dies, the body calcifies it so as to avoid the mother getting an infection from a baby essentially rotting away inside of her.
As stated before, in the case of Meléndez, she carried this small bump for over 50 years. Doctors elected to not remove it due to her age. Sadly, because the lithopedion developed in Meléndez’s uterus, she was never able to conceive afterwards.
Below is an interview with Meléndez.