Baby Skeleton Inside Mother Removed After 38 Years: World’s Longest Ectopic Pregnancy?


A baby skeleton was found inside a mother was removed after 38 years. The patient, who’s now 60 and lives in India, got pregnant when she was 24-years-old and has been carrying around the remains of her stillborn child since then. She was experiencing terrible abdominal pains, so she went to the hospital to get checked out. Kantabai Gunvant Thakre believed any complications from the pregnancy back in 1978 were healed, but clearly not.

The News Reports explains that when the woman noticed more stomach pain than usual, she had it checked out at a Nagpur city hospital. Doctors were able to narrow down the pain to a lump on the lower right side of Thakre’s abdomen and it was suspected to be cancer. A large lump of calcified matter was discovered. A CT scan was then done and a baby skeleton appeared to be inside the mother. The skeletal remains were actually outside of the womb, firmly attached to the uterus, intestines, and bladder.

A team of doctors at NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences (NKPSIMS) removed the bones. Doctors confirm that this is why Thakre was experiencing abdominal pains. There was also one ovary missing inside the woman.

One of the surgeons, Dr Mohammad Yunus Shah, says:

“The amniotic fluid that protects the fetus might have been absorbed and the soft tissues liquified over time with only a bag of bones with some fluid remaining. For the last few months, the patient was experiencing pain and urinary problems with fever.”

As Times of India goes on to report, this could be the longest ectopic pregnancy of remains inside a woman’s body ever on record; the one currently on record is 18 years from a woman in Belgium.

“We asked for a detailed medical history and the patient’s brother told us that in 1978 she was pregnant and had some complications,” says Dr. BS Gedam.

“Doctors from a city-based hospital had told her that fetus might have died and she would have to undergo an operation. We gathered she got scared at the prospect of surgery and so went away to her village without undergoing the operation.”

The woman claims that after a few months of treatment at the village health center, she was good to go and healed up. Little did she know she’d been carrying around baby skeletal remains for 38 years.

Dr. Gedam adds that the woman’s pain came from the hardened calcified mass putting pressure on the urinary system so much, that it was hindering proper functioning of the kidneys.

Another story similar to this, is one about an elderly woman having a calcified fetus that had been insider her body for 40 years. The Inquisitr also wrote on that extremely rare medical condition.

[Image via MSNBC]

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