AN ANATOMICAL FREAK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3184, 1 April 1911, Page 10

AN ANATOMICAL FREAK.

A woman patient at ,St. Mary’s Hospital. London, is defying all the conventions of nature by -living comfortably with her heai t on the right side of her body. The condition was discovered accidentally on her applying at the hospital for treatment for dizziness. On examination it was found that she was suffering from a large aneurism of the main vessel leading from the heart, as well as a smaller aneurism of the carotid artery of the neck. To determine the extent of the aneurisnu in, the chest an X-rays photograph was taken, which showed that the heart, instead of being in its normal position, was on the right side of the body. Over the usual heart area, where ordinarily one can see and feel the heart beat, there is a perfect resonance on percussion (tapping with the fingers), showing that instead of a solid heart substance underlying, the lungs have filled up the heart’s accustomed space On the right side of the breastbone, just where the X-rays protograph shows the heart to be. the heart-beat is plainly visible. A curious feature of the case is that, although the patient was treated for aneurism twenty-five years ago, the displacement of the heart has now only been discovered. Despite the grave nature of her arterial disease, the patient has enjoyed ordinary good health most of her life, and is in no way upset by the fact that her heart is in a different position fromthat of ordinary mortal’s