A woman who carried a "stone baby" for nine years has died of severe malnutrition after the rare object blocked her intestines.
The refugee, who had just arrived in the US from the DR Congo, visited a hospital after suffering stomach cramps and indigestion.
She was also experiencing a gurgling sensation in her gut after eating.
Doctors performed a scan and discovered a dead foetus blocking her lower abdomen and putting pressure on her bowel.
The woman turned down surgery, saying that she didn't "have it in my heart to do".
She blamed the condition on witchcraft, claiming someone in Tanzania had cast a spell on her.
When she first realised she had lost the child nine years earlier, medics at the refugee camp she was staying in accused her of "evil works", taking narcotics and killing the baby.
It left her terrified of medical professionals to the point that she had refused any treatment.
She is said to have told the US medics, she was "not scared of death" when given the prognosis of refusing treatment.
Just 14 months later, she died of malnutrition.
The foetus was found to have prevented her intestines from carrying out their functions, including the absorption of vital nutrients.
The US-based doctors said the woman's case shined a light on the problems with "medical distrust", while calling for better healthcare models for when treating "newly resettled refugees".
They also called for doctors to pay attention and learn more about the "rare" ailment.
A Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine paper from 1996 found only 290 cases of lithopedion have ever been documented.
In 2013, a 40-year-old foetus was found in the body of an elderly pensioner.
Doctors in Colombia discovered the 82-year-old woman was carrying the unborn baby after she went to hospital in Bogota suffering from abdominal pain.
Dr Kemer Ramirez of Bogota’s Tunjuelito Hospital explained the doctor looking after the woman noticed something “abnormal in her abdomen” and suspected it could be gallstones.
Dr Ramirez said: “This happens because the foetus does not develop in the uterus because it has moved to another place.
“In this case, the abdominal part of the woman is not a viable (place) and this is what happened, a calcified foetus because the body is generating defence mechanisms and it is calcified until it stays there encapsulated.”
A couple of years later in 2015, another elderly woman found she'd been carrying one for longer than 60 years.
Estela Meléndez, 91, had no idea she had ever fallen pregnant.
