Woman Pregnant for 46 Years | Discovery Health Channel Show

[Aether]

In case anyone is interested, there is a show on the Discovery Health Channel (right now) about a woman who has been pregnant for 46 years.

 

[Evo]

Is this a case of where the fetus died and was never expelled? I've read of a couple of cases.

 

[scott1]

How can someone be pregent for 46 years and not notice it?

 

[Pengwuino]

God that's gross! Makes you question humanity! ewwww

 

[JamesU]

WTF is this? I actualy changed the channel :grumpy:


how did this happen

 

[Aether]

How can someone be pregent for 46 years and not notice it?

She noticed. The bad news is that the fetus didn't survive, but the good news is that the mother's own body protected her. It was an ectopic pregnancy:

http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/pregnancy/ectopic.html

 

[Genecks]

God that's gross! Makes you question humanity! ewwww

I agree, but at least as a drake I can walk faster. You can't even fly, silly chicken bird.

 

[Aether]

Is this a case of where the fetus died and was never expelled? I've read of a couple of cases.

Yes.

how did this happen

A fertilized egg implanted outside the uterus (occurs in 1/30,000 pregnancies), developed to full term, but wasn't in a position to be expelled; eventually the fetus died and was removed surgically 45 years later. For the mother to survive for so long in this condition is what is rare.

 

[Blahness]

O_O'''

That's just... freaky.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Yes.
A fertilized egg implanted outside the uterus (occurs in 1/30,000 pregnancies), developed to full term, but wasn't in a position to be expelled; eventually the fetus died and was removed surgically 45 years later. For the mother to survive for so long in this condition is what is rare.

So...why did they wait 45 years?

 

[Aether]

So...why did they wait 45 years?

The mother was from a 3rd-world country, and wen't to the hospital to give birth but couldn't. She wisely left the hospital in fear that the medical staff weren't competent to handle her condition. From then-on she suffered at home and eventually learned to live with the condition...45+ years later she ended up in a modern hospital where the doctors made an x-ray of the mass in her abdomen and were surprised to find that it was a 7 lb. fetus.

 

[zoobyshoe]

The mother was from a 3rd-world country, and wen't to the hospital to give birth but couldn't. She wisely left the hospital in fear that the medical staff weren't competent to handle her condition. From then-on she suffered at home and eventually learned to live with the condition...45+ years later she ended up in a modern hospital where the doctors made an x-ray of the mass in her abdomen and were surprised to find that it was a 7 lb. fetus.

It all makes soooooo much more sense now. I was thinking it must be some crazy woman who was sure she was on the verge of labor for 45 years straight and didn't see any reason to consult a doctor till it started. Or something.

 

[Louise M]

This is truly sad because if she had seen a legitimate hospital she could have possibly saved the baby. My heart goes out to this woman.

I realize this is an old post but it still breaks my heart.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

doctors made an x-ray of the mass in her abdomen and were surprised to find that it was a 7 lb. fetus.

Why didn't the body "reclaim" the mass? Was the fetus tissue still alive?

 

[Evo]

Why didn't the body "reclaim" the mass? Was the fetus tissue still alive?

The fetus was probably already dead or would have died since it was ectopic.

Good question on the body reclaiming it, too large perhaps? How she lived with the dead fetus is a miracle.

 

[JaredJames]

Haven't there been cases where someone has been born and had an abnormal growth and when checked by doctors it's turned out to be their twin? Or what should have been, but has developed inside the other sibling.

Not strictly alive, can't remember the exact details, but I know it had hair and teeth.

 

[JaredJames]

Here we go: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2346476&page=1

One doctor recalled that day in the operating room.

"He just put his hand inside and he said there are a lot of bones inside," she said. "First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair."

Inside Bhagat's stomach was a strange, half-formed creature that had feet and hands that were very developed. Its fingernails were quite long.

 

[Evo]

Haven't there been cases where someone has been born and had an abnormal growth and when checked by doctors it's turned out to be their twin? Or what should have been, but has developed inside the other sibling.

Not strictly alive, can't remember the exact details, but I know it had hair and teeth.

Parasitic twin. I recently watched some awful cases. One was a little boy and his twin was perfectly complete, facing him, hugging him from the front, the only problem was that the twins head was buried inside of his chest. The headless twin grew at the same rate as the complete twin, and it's legs even responded to being moved.

Then there was the twin with a parasitic head. The head sucked a pacifier and cried, but there was nothing below the neck, it relied on the first twin to supply it with the nutrition to live.

 

[JaredJames]

Parasitic twin. I recently watched some awful cases. One was a little boy and his twin was perfectly complete, facing him, hugging him from the front, the only problem was that the twins head was buried inside of his chest. The headless twin grew at the same rate as the complete twin, and it's legs even responded to being moved.

Then there was the twin with a parasitic head. The head sucked a pacifier and cried, but there was nothing below the neck, it relied on the first twin to supply it with the nutrition to live.

Yeah, I've seen loads of stuff like that. Not very nice at all. The main ones that got me are the ones such as those in my linked story, where they didn't know it was another body and it had all those features within the other person. Literally, inside the other one like a pregnancy.

 

[Borek]

There are even stranger cases when twins combine in much earlier stages of development, and what borns is a chimera (see Lydia Fairchild case).

 

[G037H3]

That's pretty...uh, gross. :(

 

[JaredJames]

There are even stranger cases when twins combine in much earlier stages of development, and what borns is a chimera (see Lydia Fairchild case).

Strange yes, but I don't find it as 'disgusting' as the other examples here. No abnormal effects as such, just two different DNA strands in one person (I watched a programme on this exact case the other day so it's funny you brought it up).

 

[Borek]

I guess we should start defining "abnormal effect". I agree Lydia Fairchild is not disgusting.

 

[JaredJames]

I was going for the whole "person in a person" thing (whether a baby in a mother outside of normal pregnancy, or a twin in its sibling). For some reason I don't find people attached externally (siamese twins or the head example from a previous post) as 'disgusting' as the thought of there being a person inside another person, especially when that body has teeth / hair / nails etc.

 

[encorp]

Then there was the twin with a parasitic head. The head sucked a pacifier and cried, but there was nothing below the neck, it relied on the first twin to supply it with the nutrition to live.

oh my god......!

I found on here of a woman pregnant for 60 years!

http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/woman-pregnant-for-60-years-since-1948/

 

[mugaliens]

I found on here of a woman pregnant for 60 years!

I'm very non-squeamish, but reading that article made me sick to my stomach.

 

[AnaShep]

A bit off topic but this thread makes me think of the Stephen King novel The Dark Half. The whole book is based on this very idea. One twin was born and as a child they found the second twin eyes, teeth, nose, in the brain. It gets creepy from there.

I read the book as a teen but never made the connection. I guess he wrote it based loosely on a medical possibility.