The 82-year-old had been carrying the calcified four-pound fetus called a lithopedion for decades without realizing it, according to the Telegraph.
Doctors only discovered the rare medical phenomenon after ordering an X-ray that revealed the lithopedion, also called a "stone baby." The woman is now expected to undergo surgery to remove it.
Dr. Kim Garcsi, who directs the ob/gyn clerkship program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said the condition is so rare it has only been recorded approximately 300 times in medical literature.
Garcsi, who did not treat the Colombian woman, says the lithopedion is created when a pregnancy forms in the abdomen rather than in the uterus. When the pregnancy ultimately fails, usually because the fetus does not have enough blood supply, there is no way for the body to expel the fetus.
As a result, the body turns the fetus to "stone," using the same immune process that protects the body from any foreign object detected in a person's system. Garcsi said it may seem odd, but that the process is used constantly in the body to stay healthy.
