Legs of fetus protrude from woman’s uterus

When Pierre-Emmanuel Bouet discovered that his pregnant patient had a pair of legs protruding into her side from her uterus — the organ in which entire fetuses traditionally gestate before they are born — the doctor was flabbergasted.

“I was astonished when I discovered the amniocele,” he wrote in an email, referring to the portion of the fluid-filled sac that had ventured outside the woman’s uterus. He looked for a second opinion: “My first reaction was to ask my colleagues to confirm my diagnosis.”

Bouet, an obstetrician at the University of Angers Hospital Center in western France, had good reason for astonishment. Such an anomaly was so rare, the doctor said, that only 26 other recorded cases existed in the history of obstetric medicine.

The woman’s doctors scanned the rupture and fetus via MRI. Despite appearances, a savage fetal kick was not to blame.

Due to scarring from previous births, parts of the mother’s uterus remained atypically rigid instead of enlarging during the woman’s latest pregnancy. The uterine wall ruptured when it was unable to expand, causing an 2.5-cm-long tear.

The mother was unaware of the rupture and displayed no symptoms. Women with uterine ruptures usually feel pain, Bouet said, brought about by internal bleeding. But the hernia “compressed the walls of the uterine rupture,” he said, “and acted as a hemostatic effect.” That is, the position of the amniocele and baby legs plugged the rupture, preventing blood loss.

“The newborn was born healthy,” Bouet said. “He was premature, but healthy.”

Six months later, the doctors reported, the infant was alive and kicking.