Pregnant 92-Year-Old Woman
If you're a 60-year-old fetus you had better have some plans for your retirement:
Doctors treating an elderly Chinese woman for stomach ache were stunned when they found that she had been carrying an unborn child for 60 years.
Ninety-two-year-old Huang Yijun, of Huangjiaotan, revealed that her child had died in the womb way back in 1948, and that she did not have it removed because doctors would charge 100 pounds for the job.
"It was a huge sum at the time - more than the whole family earned in several years so I did nothing and ignored it," the Sun quoted her as saying.
The secret surfaced after Huang hurt her stomach, and went to hospital for a scan.
Now, the clinical history is a bit sketchy but the most likely presumptive diagnosis is a lithopedion (litho = stone; pedion = child), or "stone baby." [Warning, graphic pics!]
Lithopedion [Warning, path specimen!]
A lithopedion is a rare phenomenon with only a few hundred cases report in the medical literature. Usually, a lithopedion occurs after a fetus dies during an ectopic abdominal pregnancy and is too large to be reabsorbed by the body (EGA 14 wks and up).
To shield itself from the degenerating tissue of the fetal foreign body the woman's body will encase the fetus and/or its covering membranes in a calciferous substance.
Believe it or not, forming a lithopedion is a best case scenario. The alternatives, from Williams 21ed, p. 900 (text references omitted):
If the fetus dies before reaching a size too large to be resorbed, it may undergo suppuration, mummification, or calcification. Bacteria may gain access to the gestational products, particularly when they are adherent to intestines, resulting in suppuration. Eventually, the abscess ruptures, and if the woman does not die of peritonitis and septicemia, fetal parts may be extruded through the abdominal wall or more commonly into the intestine or bladder. Mummification and formation of a lithopedion occasionally ensue, and calcified products of conception may be carried for years. There are instances in which a period of 20 to 50 years elapsed before removal of a lithopedion at operation or autopsy. Much more rarely, the fetus is converted into a yellowish, greasy mass to which the term adipocere is applied.
The body is quite an amazing apparatus, no?
Labels: Ectopic, Lithopedion, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Risk
posted by ema @ 4:52 PM
14 comments
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Yes, the body is an amazing system. What gets me is that this protective system had to evolve! It probably happened back during our LCA with jellyfish and mollusks. It sounds awfully a lot like how pearls are formed.
why did the body have to evolve? have you considered that the body might certainly have an Intelligent Designer? A Creator? Does that not make more sense? I believe in the Creator-God Himself. He created the human body-why else would it be impossible for it to be created again by man? His hands formed the intricate parts, and His mind well thought out the details of how it would all operate together to enable us to function.
Psalm 139:13-16 God's hands formed us in our mother's womb.
Job chapters 38-41 God's wisdom and awesome creation of the things we see in nature.
Genesis chapters 1-2 The details of God's creation of the world in 6 days.
His most awesome Creation? you and I. We were made in the image of God. Genesis 1:26,27
Search for the truth. You will find it. God wants you to understand how much He loves you, and how His love is seen through all the things His hands have made.
Anon @ 10:23 PM,
What doesn't make sense is that with all the thousands of Creators out there--Zeus, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, Thor, God, etc.--none was competent enough to design a body, you know, intelligently.
Can you tell me of another person, or god that has formed a person out of nothing? The only God I know of that I believe IS the only one, is the only God known to have created life. Man has tried to reproduce a human life over the years, and has failed. Who do you place your trust in? Do you have any spiritual beliefs?
I suppose if you believe that "god's hands" form us in our mother's womb then god's hands also formed this feotus in this unfortunate lady's womb. Then god's hands pulled the plug on that feotus and turned it into a lump of rock and left this lady to walk around with a dead baby statue in her womb for the next 60 years. God certainly works in mysterious ways.
Yes, God does work in mysterious ways. If you look in the Bible, you will find a lot of reasons to believe so. But, you don't even have to go that far. Step outside, and look up in the sky on a clear night. How do all those stars hang in space? What is the earth itself upheld by?(Hebrews 1:1-3)God-He holds the earth in place. Did you know that some seedlings can not germinate unless it passes through the stomach of a bird? God made it that way. God placed the stars in the sky, and he knows them all by name.(Isaiah 40:26)
I agree with you-God did allow this baby to die and become stone-like. I can't say that I know why He does the things He does, but it certainly is not wrong to question Him. I am reminded of another time when someone was turned into a stone-like substance. There is a story in the Bible about a man and his family that were removed from a certain town that God was going to destroy. The messengers that helped them to escape told them to get as far away from the city as possible, and to not look back. That was a command from God. The man's wife looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Now, I am not saying that every time something happens, as in the instance of this baby, that it is God's judgement. As I said before, I cannot explain His ways. It has been said of God that His ways are indescribable, and beyond our ability to comprehend. He is such an awesome God, and powerful, but yet He also is concerned about our lives, and the little things we face every day. Have you ever thought about how easy it would be for you to wake up in the morning and no longer be breathing? God sustains your breath. He wakes you morning by morning. All He asks of us, the people He has created, is devotion, and trust. He wants to have a relationship with the ones He has formed with his own hands.But, He did not create us to be robots, but with a free will. It is your choice, just as it is mine, to surrender yourself to God, and let Him be Lord and Master of your life. Talk to Him. He will always listen. He is never to busy. He is never too far away. Just at the mention of His name, He stops to hear what you have to say.
@mella's message,
So, basically devotion and trust to the gravity and lung tissue, yes?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean. The devotion and trust I was speaking of would be towards God-the Creator and sustainer of all things, who sent His only Son to take your death penalty and mine. The Word of God says that the penalty for sin is death. We-the human race-made the choice in the very beginning to sin. In the very first book of the Bible is the story of the first two people. They had perfect communion with God.But once that was broken, man was separated from God -because He chose to sin. Since then, we, as their descendants, were all born with a sin nature.
There was no other way that what we owed to God could be paid for except at the cost of innocent blood. God's Son, Jesus Christ, was the only one who fit that criteria-the only sinless man to walk this earth. God became man, to die in our place. God took all of our wrong-doing and placed it upon His Son, and allowed Him to die. But, He didn't just die. The truth is, Jesus did not stay dead. He came to life again to show that He alone has the power over death. He killed and buried our death penalty. All we have to do is accept that what He did by taking our place was enough to pay that price. God accepted it. It was enough to cover all of our wrongdoing, or sin. We can't earn God's favor, or do enough good things to pay for that debt that we owed.Christ paid for it already. We have to just accept it as a free gift from Him-a gift of love. There is no greater love, than that a man would lay down his life for his friends.
Amen to that last comment.
:) God Bless. xXx
Please stop with the God thing. It's annoying. This story has nothing to do with God. You can't just explain the unexplainable by saying "God works in mysterious ways". Obviously you believe that. I choose not to. The end.
BOTH of you are missing the point.The REAL issue is:how on earth can a hospital DENY treatment for a woman whose fetus has died? THAT is the sinful thing here.It probably ruined her fertility,and gave her DECADES of physical and psychological distress.She could have died! Still in the world today,people are being turned away from live-saving treatment or enduring conditions in abject misery because they don't have the money to have their maladies treated.Millions are blind because they can't afford the simple eye surgery that takes a few minutes to perform because they don't have access to a skilled professional who won't charge the earth.THAT is what you should be saving your ire for,not arguing over religion.
The unfortunate truth is that many women in countries without public healthcare dont have the funds to receive any kind of prenatal care or help with the birthing process. The fatality rates are phenomenally higher for pregnant women in developing countries and many are left with permanent disfigurations or disabilities. Problems that are now unheard of in the US because prenatal care and labor at a hospital have become so available, thank who or what ever you believe in for that, but the medical field has a long way to reach to help all the ailing people in the world...
There are various volunteer hospitals and medical centers in various countries, but often people have to travel for days to reach them even when the treatment is free...
Yeah for real.... This has nothing to do with religion...it's just a scientific phenomenon. You can't just say 'god created everything' thats just being lazy and ignorant. Go do some real research and post something smart that actually makes sense.
I believe my God did create the Universe. The one that did send his son down to save me. There are things that christians cant explain, because the bible says we will never know God's ways. It's just faith that drives me and i thank God for that. Science cant explain everything either, like what is all the elements that make our body.. we are missing a very small percentage, just a little below 100 percent and the last percent i believe is something God put in us that cant be explained by elements. Or the missing links between ape and man ancestor tree. Not saying science is nothing. I'm fascinated with science myself, but it's not going to make me turn from God, because i am not throwing away my eternity from the things in this world. People dont believe in him just because they cant see him. I dont see gravity but i feel it, i dont see air but i breath it. I dont see God, but i feel him in my heart.. my soul. It's like a fairy tail to people,but not to others who spend the rest of their lives helping people be well nourished and providing them new clothes and a roof to live under believing it was, because God loved through them. Please i pray for you to just give him a chance.
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