Bhubaneswar, Jan 14 (IANS) When a 45-year-old woman in Orissa complained of a severe stomach ache, few could have suspected the real reason behind it. Doctors found a 22-year-old dead foetus in her uterus.

Sumal Puli, a resident of MV-42 village, was operated upon Wednesday and the foetus was removed at the district government hospital at Malkangiri, some 618 km from here.

'It was a very unusual case. We were surprised,' specialist Sapan Kumar Dinda, who operated upon her along with three other doctors, told IANS.

'We wonder how it remained undetected for about 22 years,' he said.

Puli said she thought she had become pregnant in 1988 but later came to believe it was a tumour.

Although she had been suffering from acute pain, she had not consulted any doctor fearing the treatment cost would be huge, she said. A group of social activists and local residents came forward to help her.

The activists brought her to the district government hospital, where a team of doctors removed the foetus Wednesday after a two-and-a-half hour operation.

They were surprised to see the foetus that had died in a part of the uterus, eight months after it was formed.