Rose Marie Bentley of Oregon, like so many of us who donate organs, wanted her body to be useful when she died. So she offered her body to science, and her body was dissected by students at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Over the course of several weeks, the students began to observe that Bentley’s cadaver was not fully normal, which Bentley had no awareness about in life.
The 99-year-old mother of five was unaware that her organs were all on the left side of her body, a condition known as situs inversus with levocardia, which implies that all of her organs, including her heart, were on the left. Because the heart is frequently misplaced and/or deformed, people with the syndrome usually have severe health difficulties. Bentley’s heart was fine, so she had no reason to suspect anything was wrong.
Bentley was an outlier in many ways because people with transposed organs seldom live past the age of 70. Some believe Bentley may be the oldest living individual to have had situs inversus.Students from Oregon Health and Science University saw that the blood arteries were arranged differently than in previous bodies, but it wasn’t until further dissection that the entire class, as well as anatomy teacher Cameron Walker, realized the magnitude of the disease.
Things like these don’t happen very often, but they provide pupils with a learning opportunity that they might not have had otherwise. Bentley had procedures (and three organs removed) throughout her life, but her condition was not documented in her medical records, except for one notation that her appendix was on the wrong side due to an appendectomy. Bentley’s body may have been handled differently after death if she had known about her situs inversus.
Medical and scientific research facilities reserve the right to refuse any body donated to them due to medical issues or other considerations, in which case the corpse must be cared for by the family. Louise Allee, Bentley’s daughter, claimed that if her mother was watching, she would be immensely amused because she was different from everyone else: “My mom would think this was so cool.” More information about this unusual instance can be found in the video below.