75-year-old woman found to be carrying 50-year-old foetus
(DPA)
18 January 2005
HANOI A 75-year-old woman hospitalised in Vietnam a week ago with abdominal pain was found to be carrying a foetus that was at least 50 years old, doctors said yesterday.
Dinh Thi Thu was shocked when doctors told her she was carrying the foetus, according to Nguyen Ngoc Tai, the director of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Hospital in Quang Binh province, 400 kilometres south of Hanoi.
"She said she noticed the growth in her belly 50 years ago. At that time, she sometimes felt some movement in her abdomen, but gradually, she just forgot about it and found no problem with it, Dr Tai said. Tai said the foetus appeared to be the result of an ectopic pregnancy. Because it was outside her womb it had not interfered with the mother of threes ability to bear children, the doctor said.
Scans revealed the skull, backbone, ribs and limbs to be the size of a normal eight-month-old foetus. The foetus is dead, of course, and has been calcified. Tai said.
Tai said it was also possible that the foetus was the womans twin and she had been carrying it all her life. A three-hour operation was scheduled for tomorrow to remove the foetus.
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