A MEDICAL CURIOSITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 308, 30 December 1929, Page 9

A MEDICAL CURIOSITY.

GIRL'S ORGANS MOVE. SYDNEY DOCTORS INTRIGUED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 10. Into a Sydney Hospital ward .was introduced a medical curiosity—a small girl suffering an unusual and painful complaint. The child's heart and chest organs have been pushed over to the right side of her body, and where her heart should be is a cavity filled with wind. Little Mavis Keeghan is the medical curiosity instanced and she was brought to the hospital suffering all the symptoms of severe bronchitis. Close medical examination,-.however, showed that for some reason the;girl's heart and entire chest organs had. moved over to the right side, and further investigation convinced doctors that there was an air-filled space where the heart should be. Pressure of the air forced the lungs close together, and moved the heart from the left"to the right side. Thus all the child's organs .were congested foil .the right 6ide, while the other side was a huge cavjty. Doctors were faced with a problem in that any swift action tq relieve the child of her pain might have* fatal results. They found they must remove the air little by little. Each day a tube has been inserted into her chest and a portion ot the air drawn off. Already the heart and lungs are in the centre of the body, am! doctors are confident that as more air is drawn off the organs will return to their rightful place. : , :. , The complaint from, which the cirl is suffering is known to medical science as pneumo-thorax, few cases being °" record in this country, .though medical men have found, in other countries, cases where.the heart has been moved almost to the solar plexus. Buy a blazer for beach use or holiday wear. Hundreds of beautiful designs available at George Fowlds, Ltd.—(Ad.)