Indonesia woman carried dead baby for 27 years

Indonesia woman carried dead baby for 27 years

Agence France-Presse
Jakarta

Surgeons have delivered a 27-year-old baby from a middle-aged
housewife who had carried the dead body inside her because she
was too poor to have it removed, doctors said on Wednesday.

A team of 15 doctors operated for three hours on Tuesday to
retrieve the 1.6 kilogram (3.5 pound) petrified baby from the 54-
year-old woman, identified as Taminah, at the Sutomo General
Hospital in Surabaya.

"This may be a world record. The woman has carried the dead
but fully developed baby inside her for 27 years," said doctor
Urip Murtejo.

He said the woman was otherwise healthy but had been referred
to the hospital from her home of Bojonegoro, west of Surabaya,
after complaining of occasional pains in her stomach.

Taminah's baby perished before birth in 1978 after it
developed outside the womb. At the time she could not afford the
surgery to extract it, Murtejo said.

The woman was recovering at the hospital and was said to be in
good health after the operation. The body was taken for forensic
study.