Keep My Words

I had asked Chris what he thought about stone babies and/or harlequin babies.

“That’s terrible, I don’t think of that kind of stuff,” he answered.

“You never have terrible thoughts?” I challenged him.

He seemed appalled.  “No.  I don’t know.  No, I don’t.”

I have terrible thoughts.  The most vile, revolting information tends to loiter in my mind.  It’s a blessing for me that these ideas linger.  I consider mulling over the gruesome and offensive a beloved pastime.  And lately, I have been pondering the existence of stone babies and harlequin babies.

In 1955, 26-year old Zahra Aboutalib went into labour.  At the hospital, she witnessed another woman and her baby die during childbirth while undergoing a Caesarian section.  Afraid that this might be her own fate, Zahra left the hospital without giving birth.  Zahra lived in Casablanca, and in Moroccan culture it is believed that a baby can live inside its mother’s womb to protect her honor.  So her faith comforted her, and days later the severe labour pains that Zahra felt subsided.

However, almost 50 years later Zahra felt a similar, excruciating pain.  Doctors suspected a tumor and arranged for her to have an ultra-sound.  When results were inconclusive, Zahra went to see a specialist.  A detailed MRI revealed the shocking truth: the large mass unidentifiable by the ultra-sound was actually the child that Zahra had conceived decades prior.  The child had survived by attaching its placenta to vital organs around Zahra’s stomach, and it continued to develop inside of her.

When surgeons removed the seven pound baby, they found that it was completely hardened.  This was because the fetus was too large to be re-absorbed into Zahra’s body.  As protection against infection, her immune system covered the unborn baby in a calciferous substance causing it to dehydrate and die.

The infant was mummified and turned to stone.  This rare occurrence is called a lithopedian, or a stone baby.

Harlequin babies are debatably more disturbing.  Harlequin ichthyosis is a rare skin disease.  Infants suffering from this abnormality appear scaly and suffer from severe deformities.  The ears and nose are often completely absent, with only holes where these body parts would be.  The eyelids are usually inside out and therefore prone to severe pain and infection.  The lips are generally turned outwards, creating a horrifying scowl on the child’s face.

Because of the dry, cracking skin on a harlequin baby, the child rarely survives for more than a few days.  Dehydration, infection, and breathing problems as a result of the condition prove to be fatal.

The first case of harlequin ichthyosis was described in the diary of a Reverend from 1684.  He wrote:

“On Thursday, April 5, 1684, I went to see a most deplorable object of a child, born the night before… I scarcely know how to describe it. The skin was dry and hard and seemed to be cracked in many places, somewhat resembling the scales of a fish. The mouth was large and round and open. It had no external nose, but two holes where the nose should have been. The eyes appeared to be lumps of coagulated blood, turned out, about the bigness of a plum, ghastly to behold. It had no external ears, but holes where the ears should be. The hands and feet appeared to be swollen, were cramped up and felt quite hard. The back part of the head was much open. It made a strange kind of noise, very low, which I cannot describe. It lived about forty-eight hours and was alive when I saw it.”

These are terrible thoughts.  Now I have ousted them from my mind and onto this computer screen, creating room for more.  My repulsive admission of nightmarish reveries makes me wonder what terrible thoughts occupy your mind.