A team of doctors at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital successfully operated upon a 'lithopaedian' case, removing a 25-year-old mummified baby from the womb of a 65-year-old woman. ('Litho' means stone, and 'paedian' relates to children).
Rahatun Nessa, a mother of five children was admitted to the hospital on May 5 with complaints of a lump in her lower abdomen. A resident of Kalaigaon in Darrang district, she had this lump for the last 25 years. Dr Nikhil Rajkhowa, one of the four doctors who conducted the operation, said the embryo, formed about 25 years ago, got aborted to the peritoneal cavity from the mother's uterus and grew like a full normal baby. He said the CT scan on the patient showed that it was a lithopaedian case, in which the foetus becomes a stony hard mass, following secondary abdominal pregnancy.
The patient had been feeling some discomfort for a long time now but avoided specialised treatment for lack of money. Her children took her to a hospital in Guwahati after she complained of acute pain and a swelling. He referred her to the Gauhati Medical College Hospital.