A refugee of Congolese origin died in the United States of acute malnutrition from a calcified fetus that she had carried in her womb for nine years.
A rare phenomenon. A Congolese refugee in the United States died of severe malnutrition from a calcified fetus in her uterus that she carried for nine years. This case was uncovered in the journal BMC Women’s Health in early March.
This term is called a lithopedion and refers to a fetus that has calcified or turned into bone. “Calcification can affect the fetus, the membranes, the placenta, or any combination of these structures. It is an extremely rare complication of pregnancy that can remain asymptomatic or manifest as gastrointestinal and/or urogenital symptoms.
After fleeing her homeland, the 50-year-old was in a refugee camp in Tanzania when she became pregnant for the ninth time. Stigmatized by professionals after losing her fetus, they had advised her to wait until it was “deported”.
Symptoms of particular concern
Arriving in the United States, according to still the same sources, she underwent an examination of her abdominal mass, which confirmed the diagnosis of lithopedion. In addition, she had chronic symptoms of abdominal pain and discomfort, dyspepsia, and gurgle after eating.
Given this situation, the 50-year-old woman was referred to the Department of Gynecology and Oncology for a surgical consultation because of an intermittent bowel obstruction due to the underlying abdominal mass, BMC Women’s Health said.
However, she declined the procedure for fear of surgery. She therefore died of severe malnutrition associated with recurrent intestinal obstruction due to lithopedion.
Because this phenomenon is very rare, the study also notes that fetal calcification occurs “in approximately 1.5 to 1.8% of ectopic pregnancies and in 0.00045% of all pregnancies.”