Insane Things Found Growing Inside People

Our bodies are capable of doing extraordinary things, both good and bad. But you can never quite be sure what’s going on inside them. In fact, there might even be something LIVING inside you. From parasitic twins and insects, to the incredible story of a 91 year old woman who carried a baby for more than 60 years! Read on as we discover some shocking things found living inside of people.

Calcified Baby

For many people, fertility issues mean they’re unable to conceive a child. Sadly, this was the reality for Estela and Manuel Melendez, a Chilean couple who, despite their best efforts, were never able to bear a child of their own. However, from their struggle comes a story so bizarre, you’ll be left completely shocked.

Estela did manage to get pregnant numerous times, though heartbreakingly none of them made it to full term. Through all the heartache, it seemed as if having children wasn’t meant to be, so the couple grew old childless. At the age of 91, Estela, who by that point had become a widow, was taken into hospital after having a fall.

Having undergone some x-rays, the doctors were shocked to discover something concerning in her tummy, a large solid mass! The initial assumption was that it was a tumor, however the truth was far more disturbing. What they actually found was a baby!

But while there was a baby in her tummy, it’s important to clarify that Estela certainly wasn’t pregnant. The tragic reality is, 60 years prior the baby hadn’t made it, but had somehow remained in Estela’s uterus, where it had calcified. This rare phenomenon is known as a lithopedion or the condition lithopedia, deriving from the Ancient Greek words for stone and child.

Typically, when a baby is lost in utero, it’s so small that it’s absorbed back into the surrounding tissue. Or, if larger and more developed, it causes a host of uncomfortable symptoms like light-headedness and vomiting and will need to be birthed or surgically removed.

With lithopedia, however, it’s too big to be reabsorbed into the mother’s body yet the usual symptoms don’t occur. Instead, something very peculiar happens. The mom’s body produces and deposits a payload of calcium which hardens the unborn child’s tissue and prevents it from causing infection.

This is calcification, and it’s actually pretty clever. But because it can happen as early as three months into a pregnancy and prevents the nasty symptoms of an infection, many women have no idea what’s happened. This means they don’t get it removed and it isn’t found until much later, which was the case with Estela.

An undetected lithopedion, though, can have crucial implications, like being unable to conceive again. This is because the calcified fetus distorts the pelvic anatomy and hinders ovum pickup, AKA the process whereby embryos are created from fertilized eggs. In the few cases where the fetus is identified and removed, it’s possible for the mother to conceive again, but having gone 60 years completely unaware, Estela wasn’t so fortunate.

While lithopaedia can be unsettling and sad to contemplate, it usually causes no real damage to the mother besides some general discomfort. Considering that, plus Estela being 91, the doctors decided that putting her under general anesthetic and surgically removing the fetus would put her life in more danger than doing nothing. So, her unborn calcified baby was left to continue existing within her.

Giving Birth To Twims At 70: Safina Namukwaya

91-year-old Estela may never have been able to fulfil her dream of having a child, but this next woman is living proof that it’s truly never too late! Meet Safina Namukwaya, a Ugandan woman who could be Africa’s oldest mom at 70 years old. Having longed for a child her whole life, Safina had her first at the age of 67, and then, even more incredibly, twins at 70!

70 Year-Old Ugandan Woman Delivers Twins by VOA Africa

Biologically, women around middle age will experience what’s called menopause, when their ovaries stop releasing eggs for fertilization and they can no longer get pregnant. At least, not naturally! But Safina was able to bear children at 70 thanks to IVF and the use of a donor egg. While it’s certainly up for debate as to whether having children so late in life is ethical, there’s no doubt that Safina will love and cherish the children she yearned so long for.

Sanju Bhagat: "Pregnant Man" Living With Twin Inside

One of the fundamental differences between men and women, besides one finding farts funny and the other finding Amy Schumer funny, is that men can’t get pregnant. That said, despite having neither the organs nor orifices to bear a child, this next man got pretty close to being the world’s first pregnant dude.

It was 1999 and Indian man, Sanju Bhagat, was struggling with an immensely swollen stomach and breathing difficulties. Oddly enough, for as long as he could remember, he’d always had a swollen stomach. However, at 36 years old, it’d gotten so bad he could barely breathe. So, he went to the doctors, who examined him and found a large mass which they assumed to be a tumor.

As such, it became a medical emergency. But when they began operating on Sanju, they found something so peculiar they were left gobsmacked. For starters, gallons of fluid spilled out of Sanju’s stomach. This raised alarm bells, but as the surgeon delved in further, alarm turned to horror. There, lurking inside, was a half-formed creature with hands, feet, jaws, hair, and even long fingernails! But what exactly was it?

In short, it was a fetus. Before anyone starts thinking that Sanju was actually pregnant, that’s not the case. It turns out that while in his mother’s womb, Sanju had been a twin. Very early on however, he’d wrapped around his would-be sibling to the point he completely consumed the other fetus. This is an incredibly rare phenomenon known as “fetus in foetu.”

Extraordinarily, the consumed twin can continue to survive, behaving almost like a parasite as it forms an umbilical-cord-like structure and leeches onto its twin’s blood supply. As the twin continues to feed, it can grow so big that, like in Sanju’s case, it presses on vital organs such as the diaphragm, and hinders breathing.

Technically, the twin, while not a conscious being, was alive, as it survived from Sanju’s blood and continued to grow. But with it causing so much harm, the doctors had no option but to evict Sanju’s little room-mate (or womb-mate), inevitably causing it to perish.

Fetus Found Inside Baby

Fetus in foetu, while extremely rare and documented in less than 100 cases, also affected a little Indian girl back in 2016. 15-month-old Nisha had been similarly suffering from a swollen stomach most of her life and looked impossibly pregnant. However, due to her parents being poor laborers, they couldn’t afford to have her examined. It was only when it got so severe that Nisha could hardly eat nor breathe that they sought medical attention.

At first, doctors assumed it was a huge cyst, but they were astonished when it revealed itself as a mass of tissue and bone dwelling in the toddler’s abdomen. Incredibly, tiny 15-month-old Nisha had been carrying a huge 7-pound-11-ounce fetus, which would’ve been her twin. To put that into perspective, the average weight of a newborn is around 7 pounds.

Like any fetus in foetu case, the parasitic twin had leeched from Nisha’s blood supply and grown debilitatingly large. All that matters though is that it was removed and Nisha is now healthy and recovered.

Teratoma

A tumor, if you didn’t know, is a solid mass of tissue that forms when abnormal cells group together in your body. While they’re not always cancerous, they can still be pretty scary. But of all the tumors, there’s one that’ll really shiver your timbers. It’s called a teratoma, or as some like to call it, a terror-toma.

But what is a teratoma? To put it simply, it’s a rare type of germ cell tumor that can grow creepy stuff like hair, bones, muscles, and even fully formed teeth! The only positive is that these hairy chomping tumors are rarely cancerous.

Still, when a Japanese woman had a teratoma within her ovaries back in 2003, doctors discovered something especially concerning about it. It had bones, limbs, teeth, hair, guts, one eye, and even a brain, leading the doctors to describe it as a small, black, and misshapen human. Imagine finding out that there is a literal brain in your stomach! The worst part of this whole ordeal is that the teratoma had almost everything it needed to become a conscious being, which is seriously spooky.

Hallucinatory Voices Told Woman She Had Brain Tumor

Unbelievably, a middle-aged woman was correctly told by the voices in her head that she had a brain tumor. The woman explained how she’d been home alone one day when she suddenly heard a voice talking to her. A voice she realized was inside her head: “Please don’t be afraid. I know it must be shocking for you to hear me speaking to you like this, but this is the easiest way I could think of. My friend and I used to work at the Children’s Hospital and we’d like to help you.”

Naturally, the woman was freaked out and initially sought psychiatric help. She was diagnosed with functional hallucinatory psychosis and prescribed medication which, for a time, stopped the voice. However, while on vacation it returned with a startling new message. This time, she was told to immediately head back to her home in England. It even gave her the address of a specific hospital and explained that her brain had both a tumor and an inflamed stem, so she needed a scan.

The instructions were so specific that, despite how crazy it seemed, she felt compelled to follow them. The hospital was at first reluctant to perform a scan based on a disembodied voice. However, to keep her withering mind at ease, they eventually gave in. Unbelievably, the voice was right! Doctors were shocked to find exactly what the woman had described, and quickly got to work. Thankfully, the operation was a resounding success.

But the weirdness doesn’t stop there. After having the tumor removed, the woman claimed the voice returned one last time to say, we are pleased to have helped you. Goodbye. Then, it vanished forever. How any of this is possible remains a medical mystery. Though, some medical professionals reckon the fantastical tale might not have been completely true.

Pea Plant Growing Inside Man's Lung

As a child, your parents were probably constantly telling you how you needed to eat your greens if you wanted to grow up big and strong! It turns out eating peas, specifically, might actually be pretty dangerous. How so?

Well, back in 2009, 75-year-old Massachusetts resident, Ron Sveden, began to experience a severe cough and shortness of breath. As his respiratory issues worsened, he became convinced that he had a tumor in one of his lungs. Eventually, his concerned wife insisted he visit the doctors, and while they did find something in Ron’s lung, it certainly wasn’t a tumor.

Sprouting within his lung was a literal pea plant! It sounds impossible, but Ron had evidently accidentally inhaled a pea while eating dinner. And given the warm and moist environment of his lung, the doctors explained how it provided the ideal conditions for the plant to bloom. Worst of all, it’d caused said lung to collapse! Fortunately, the pea plant was removed successfully and Ron recovered just fine. Though, he might not be in the mood for peas anytime soon.

Spider Burrows Under Man's Skin

Despite what the Spiderman franchise might portray, being bitten by a spider is rarely a stroke of good luck. But what’s worse? Well, just imagine a spider literally living inside of you. Sounds like something from a horror movie, but this actually happened to one guy.

It was 2014 and upon returning from vacation in Bali, Aussie man, Dylan Thomas, noticed a strange painful red line appearing near his belly button and running up to the center of his torso. Concerned, he paid a visit to the doctors where he was prescribed some antihistamines, but they did nothing to stop the line’s advance. Eventually, after three excruciating days, the doctors figured out the cause or rather, culprit. There was a literal spider scuttling around under Thomas’ skin!

But how? Well, Thomas had recently had an appendectomy and it’s believed that the spider, which was about the size of a matchhead, had somehow burrowed itself into the resulting scar, then travelled under Thomas’ skin and set up camp at his sternum for 3 days! Truly horrifying. If you didn’t have arachnophobia before, then you sure do now.

But while a spider crawling beneath a man’s skin certainly makes a great headline, spider expert Christopher Buddle from McGill University doesn’t buy it. According to him, the story goes against the typical understanding of the biology and behavior of spiders, leading him to conclude that it was far more likely to be a tick or a mite. Both, however, still pretty horrifying in their own ways!

Onto a similarly terrifying arachnid encounter and British man, Colin Blake, got very up close and personal with one. While on a French cruise back in 2023, Colin realized his big toe had suddenly become severely swollen and purple.

Having made a visit to the onboard medic, he was told the swelling was due to a wolf spider bite, which was horrifying enough. But while that was somewhat true, the whole truth was much more gruesome. As the medic began to lance the wound, something completely unexpected flowed out, a whole host of tiny spider eggs! Meaning a wolf spider had not only bitten his big toe, but laid its eggs in there too!

But before you decide wolf spiders are the devil, there’s more. It turns out, this story is highly unlikely. According to arachnologists, no spiders lay their eggs in mammals. In fact, wolf spiders carry their egg sacs on their back and, even after they’ve hatched, continue to carry the spiderlings around! So whoever reported on this got their facts wrong. Whatever really was the case, after a short course of antibiotics, Colin and his big toe made a full recovery.

Sea Snail Living In Boy's Skin

Back in 2018, an 11-year-old boy was out at California Beach when he fell and scraped his elbow in a tide pool. As his parents began cleaning his wound, they noticed something strange, a blister had formed from it and was growing in size. Concerned, they took their son to the doctors.

Upon examination, the doctors found no immediate cause for concern, he had no difficulty moving his arm, nor a fever. However, the blister was sore and full of fluid, which can develop into a bacterial infection. So, they decided to lance and drain it. But beneath all the pus, the doctor was surprised to find a hard object, roughly 4 millimeters in diameter. There could be no doubt what it was: a sea snail. And worst of all, it was somehow still alive!

Identified as a chequered periwinkle, this sea snail has gills but typically lives in high tidal zones which often expose it to air. As a result, it avoids suffocation by preserving water and moisture within its shell, retreating inside, and closing the shell tightly with a little trapdoor. This is probably how it survived for so long inside the little boy’s cut. Regardless, the slimy lodger was promptly evicted and the little boy recovered just fine after a course of antibiotics.

Bug In Ear

If you’re not really a fan of bugs then you’re not alone. From all those gangly legs to their antennas and beady eyes, they can be pretty sinister looking. What’s more, they’re often so small they can wind up in some tight places, as I’m sure this next guy would tell you. After complaining that he could apparently ‘hear’ a bug inside his ear, he got a family member to have at it with a pair of tweezers.

Bug Buried in Guy’s Ear by Jacob Stanfield

Surprisingly, there was a literal moth fluttering about in there. Luckily, besides being a tad traumatized, the guy was fine as far as we know. But if the sight of that didn’t jeeper your creepers, then just get a load of this next clip where one poor woman suspected she had a spider in her ear.

You’re probably wondering what it was they poured down her ear that repelled the eight-legged terror. It was hydrogen peroxide, which is the same chemical that’s widely used as a stain remover and wound cleaner. While there are conflicting claims on its bug repelling effectiveness, it certainly made this little spider scramble!

Fir Tree Growing In Man's Lung

The dreaded C word, cancer, can be frightening to contemplate. So, you can imagine how concerned 28-year-old Russian, Artyom Sidorkin, was back in 2009 when he thought he was going to be diagnosed with lung cancer.

Having suffered from extreme chest pain and an inflamed cough for some time, Artyom took a visit to the doctors and, sure enough, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his lung. While things seemed as if they couldn’t get worse though, they certainly got weirder. Artyom was rushed into hospital to have the tumor removed.

But the docs discovered they weren’t actually dealing with a tumor at all! Let’s just say, judging by what they found, they’d have been better employing an arborist to deal with it. Sprouting inside his lung was a genuine fir tree!

It may sound physically impossible, but the doctors believed Artyom had unintentionally inhaled a fir tree seed, which wound up in his lung. And much like how that pea plant was able to grow in Ron Sveden’s lung, the warmth and moisture in Artyom’s allowed the fir seed to somewhat thrive, reaching two inches in length.

Dandelion Grows In Girl's Ear

You can never be fully prepared to be a parent. However, some issues, like if your kid gets a fever or an ouchie on the knee can be easily dealt with. This next story, though, not so much!

Back in 2013, the parents of a 16-month-old girl noticed how she was in a constant state of discomfort with her ear. For months she scratched at it in pain until they finally took her to the doctors to have it checked out. What was found was perhaps the last thing they expected. Somehow a dandelion seed had made its way into the little girl’s ear canal and started to grow.

It wasn’t literally coming out of her ear, but it completely filled her ear canal! As you can imagine, this wasn’t just uncomfortable for the girl, but dangerous too. Even the slightest bit of pressure from the dandelion could’ve put her at risk of internal bleeding. Fortunately, they were able to weed out the weed, if you will, and all was well!

Mushrooms Growing In Woman's Stomach

You might think that mushrooms are a healthy and tasty addition to your meals, packed with protein and fiber. However, this next gruesome tale may make you think twice before chowing down on some fungi!

The year was 2017 and a 50-year-old woman from China was preparing shiitake mushrooms for her dinner. If you didn’t know, shiitake often come dried and therefore require soaking for a while before eating so they can be rehydrated. In a pinch for time however, the woman skipped most of this step and tossed them in her stew prematurely. So, when it came time to eat they were tough and she could hardly chew through them. It wasn’t until the following day though that she realized the true error of her ways though.

When the unchewed, dehydrated mushrooms had hit her stomach, they’d reacted with her stomach acid and continued to inflate, and inflate, and inflate. After several days, this led to a very painful blockage in her intestines. Crippled, the woman dragged herself to the doctors where they discovered the fungal infestation that was causing her issues.

Astonishingly, the mushrooms were actually alive, with some measuring as long as 2.7 inches! Luckily, they were surgically removed without any further complications. But let this be a lesson: beware mushrooms! Or just cook and chew your food properly.

I hope you were amazed at these insane things found growing inside people! Thanks for reading.