A fossilized embryo was found in the abdomen of an 81-year-old Brazilian woman: she had been carrying the fetus for 56 years and did not know about it. Photo

Brazilian woman Daniela Vera carried a fossilized embryo under her heart for at least 56 years and did not realize it. She had been experiencing abdominal pain for a long time, but avoided going to the doctor. Instead, she preferred folk methods, which caused the discomfort not to subside, but even to become more pronounced.

According to Diario AS, when the pain became unbearable, Vera did seek medical help, but then she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, and the true cause of her unhealthy condition was discovered only a few days before the 81-year-old woman's death.

The calcified embryo in the abdominal cavity was the result of a long-standing ectopic pregnancy. This phenomenon is called "lithopedion" and is extremely rare.

After the embryo was discovered, Daniela Veri was scheduled for surgery to remove the foreign body, but the next day she died in the intensive care unit, according to doctors, from an infection. The fossilized fetus will now be examined to learn more about the lithopedion.

In total, the woman gave birth to seven children and had 40 grandchildren. The youngest of her daughters, Roseli Almeida, admitted that her mother had been complaining of pain since her first pregnancy. She "felt like the baby was moving in her stomach". This indicates that the fossilized embryo did not prevent her from carrying all her children.

Her son, Wanderlei Avalo Almeida, noted the reason why Daniela Vera did not seek medical attention for several decades: "She didn't want to go to the doctors because she was worried that she had a tumor. She just took medicine to make the pain go away."

"We are shocked. She was our mother and the only one who protected people, and now she is gone, and we feel lost," said Roseli Almeida.

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