Down in A+E today, I was casually listening to yet another chest. On the left side, I struggled to pick up anything suspicious, it all seemed fine. Breathing was a bit quick, but otherwise absolutely fine. Moving on to right side, the lungs seemed okay again, and the heart was beating strongly and regularly. I was struggling to understand why the SHO had told me to listen to this guy's chest, and was now hovering over my shoulder in excitement.
Hang on a minute. Right side.... Heart....... Right side................. Heart.
Right side.
Heart.
Isn't the heart meant to be on the left side? The rusting cogs that fill my head were finally heaved back into motion by a dropping penny. This guy's heart is on the wrong side, or as we medically inclined people say, dextrocardia. Affecting only 0.01% of people, most of whom will never know it, it's quite an interesting catch for a third year student. There are a few dangers of having the condition, mostly to do with sufficient oxygen getting through the lungs to the body, but to be honest I haven't done enough research to explain them.
I mean, it's not likely to come up in any of my exams, is it?
Friday, April 27, 2007
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7 comments:
The typical Southampton student approach...
Excuse my ignorance but isn't the heart central, its just that the left side of the heart pumps the blood....
Im sure thats enough for u to shoot me down in flames.....
The heart is found 30% right of the central line and 70% left of it. As for pumping blood, the right side pumps blood to and from the lungs, and the left side pumps blood to and from the rest of the body.
However, it certainly shouldn't be found totally on the right hand side of the chest.
Down in flames? Nah, more like a forced landing.
i find this kinda shit fascinating,
did the guy know or were you guys telling him then?
He had no idea, but I think he'd come in with a complication of it, lung probs and a headache. The SHO was going to break the bad news to him later.
i have dextracardia and ther eis no problem. Never had a health or long problem with it It just gets annoying when I have to have an EKG or an Xray and medical personell sound all confused and I am not sure why it is listed as a defect-It's the only thing I have known. But then again certain skin and eye colours or short people or tall people could also be listed as defective.
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