The re-arranged skeleton of a foetus believed to have been inside a woman for 36 years. (AFP)
Doctors in Maharashtra have removed the skeleton of a foetus that had been inside a woman for 36 years in what is believed to be the world's longest ectopic pregnancy, a doctor has said.
Skeletal remains that were removed are seen in video footage laid out on a hospital bed, and include numerous parts of a rib cage, leg and arm bones and sections of a skull, spine and pelvis.
The 60-year-old woman became pregnant at the age of 24 but suffered a miscarriage because the foetus had been growing outside of her uterus, the doctor told news agency AFP on Monday.
The woman was "terrified" of having surgery at the time to remove the remains of the foetus, and instead sought medication for the pain at a local clinic.
Although the pain gradually subsided, it returned years later, forcing the woman to seek medical help in a city hospital, Murtaza Akhtar said.
"She came to us complaining of pain in the abdomen," said Mr Akhtar, head of surgery at the N.K.P. Salve Institute of Medical Sciences in the city of Nagpur.
"This is a case in which the woman got pregnant outside the uterus. She told us she was pregnant in 1978 and it was a mature pregnancy," he said.
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Doctors felt a lump on her lower right abdomen and feared it could be cancer -- but further tests and scans revealed a calcified mass.
"A 60-year-old woman with a foetus lying in her abdomen for 36 years is a medical marvel. It's something we had never heard about," said the doctor.
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the egg implants outside the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes.
A team of doctors in Nagpur successfully performed surgery to remove the mass that was lodged between the woman's uterus, intestines and bladder.
"She was shocked when she first got to know what had happened. But she is fine now and is recuperating," Mr Akhtar said.