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New Delhi Television reports
Routine testing revealed a Chilean 92-year-old grandmother has been bearing a large mummified fetus for at least 50 years, medical sources said [June 19].
The fetus weighing nearly two kilos (four pounds) was discovered after the nonagenarian was rushed to a hospital after suffering a fall. A hip X-ray showed the fetus, which was about seven months developed, but it did not cause the woman any pain.
The rare condition is known as lithopedion and occurs when a fetus dies during pregnancy and then calcifies outside the uterus. Only several hundred cases have been noted in medical history and it is not unusual for the condition to be undiagnosed for decades.
The Chilean woman returned home a few hours after being checked out, without an operation.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday June 21 2015, @07:32PM
without an operation.
Technically wouldn't that be an abortion? Maybe Chile laws are all whacked out like some kind of redneck fever dream so she can't legally get it taken care of.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2015, @07:46PM
I have no medical training, and I'm not a lawyer either, but I think that it would not technically be an abortion, since the fetus is already dead. This can't be an abortion, in the same sense in which you can't abort the moonlanding *after* the rocket fails to launch.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2015, @07:57PM
Even in North America they often don't do surgery on people this old unless it is absolutely necessary. The risk of the surgery itself is too high. When they found a "grapefruit sized" tumor in my wife's grandmother at 95, the doctors decided to monitor it instead. She lived another 5 happy years, and did not die from the tumor.
(Score: 5, Informative) by isostatic on Sunday June 21 2015, @08:31PM
Maybe Chile laws are all whacked out like some kind of redneck fever dream so she can't legally get it taken care of.
Chile's laws are whacked out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Chile [wikipedia.org]
Abortion in Chile is illegal without exception. The Chilean abortion law is considered one of the most restrictive policies on abortion in the world.
Abortion was permitted by the Health Code in 1931[1] but abolished by the military dictatorship on September 15, 1989, arguing that due to advances in medicine it was "no longer justifiable." Before the ban, any woman whose life was in danger could ask to get an abortion, if she had the approval of two doctors.
Of course, that means there's still 1000 abortions a week off a 17.6 million population.
Canada, which has no legal restrictions on abortion - one of only a few countries in the world - has about 1800 abortions a week off 35 million population - so slightly lower per capita than Chilie.
However there's no way any doctor anywhere in the world would operate on a 92 year-old to remove a benign lump.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @12:52AM
Quite interesting... thanks for pointing out how strict Chilean law is on this.
I would have a hard time calling this an "abortion"... I believe the word "miscarriage" more accurately describes this situation
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday June 22 2015, @09:14AM
I did find a reference to "aborting a dead foetus is illegal" in Chile, however I couldn't find multiple reputable sources.