Students at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland made a surprising discovery during their gross anatomy class last spring.
As part of the class, students opened up cadavers in order to get a closer look at the organs. When students opened the chest cavity of Rose Marie Bentley, a woman who died at age 99 of natural causes, they noticed the blood vessels looked odd. When the time came to examine her abdominal cavity, they discovered the "organs of the digestive tract ... were transposed entirely right to left," Prof. Cameron Walker told USA Today. "I'd never seen this before and the students were every bit as fascinated."
Bentley, it turned out, had a rare condition called situs inversus with levocardia. Her heart was in the correct spot, but other organs, including her liver and spleen, were in the opposite locations from where they should have been. It's believed that Bentley is the oldest person to ever have had the condition, which happens in roughly 1 in every 22,000 births.
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There are only two documented cases of people with situs inversus making it to their 70s, and Walker estimates only 1 in 50 million people born with the condition live to see adulthood. Bentley's family said when she had her appendix removed, the doctor noted that it was in the wrong spot but didn't actually tell her that. Bentley's daughter, Louise Allee, told USA Today her mom "would think this was so cool. She would be tickled pink that she could teach something like this. She would probably get a big smile on her face, knowing that she was different, but made it through."
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