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Medical students have long been learning the intricacies of the human body by carefully examining a given body in a general anatomy course.
But in the spring of 2018, OHSU students had the unusual opportunity to learn from a donor whose anatomy was anything but typical.
Rose Marie Bentley apparently lived 99 years without knowing that she was suffering from a rare condition called situs inversus with levocardia, which meant that her liver, stomach, and other abdominal organs were transposed from the right on the left, but his heart remained on the left side of his chest.
"I knew something was wrong, but it took us a while to understand how it was prepared," recalls Cam Walker, Ph.D., who helped students unravel the mystery of the anatomy of Bentley. Walker is badistant professor of anatomy at the OHSU Anatomic Service Center, which teaches anatomy.
Beat the odds
Situs inversus with levocardia occurs about once in 22,000 births and is often badociated with life-threatening heart conditions and other abnormalities. Bentley is perhaps the oldest person known. The medical literature describes two other cases of elderly patients, both 70 years old. Walker estimates that only one in 50 million people, born with Bentley's disease, live long enough to become adults.
Bentley's family reports that she has lived without any chronic illness, aside from arthritis. Three organs were removed during his lifetime, but only one surgeon who removed his appendix noted his unusual location in his notes. None of Bentley's children were aware of their mother's transposed organs and they believe that she did not know it either.
Unexpected education
Walker and his colleague Mark Hankin, Ph.D., present a scientific poster on Bentley's unusual anatomy at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Association of Anatomists at Experimental Biology, to be held from 6 at 9th April in Orlando, Florida. Hankin is Professor of Anatomy, Senior Anatomist and Director of the OHSU Anatomic Service Center.
Warren Nielsen, a second year medical student at Lake Oswego, in Oregon, was one of the many OHSU students who worked with Bentley in 2018.
"It was pretty amazing," said Nielsen. "We were able to learn not only the normal anatomy but also all the anatomical variations that can occur.I learned to better understand how she could live as long as she lived. I was asked who she was.The experience allowed me to look forward to treating the patients and applying what I learned from her. "
A busy life
One of Bentley's five children, Louise Allee, of Canby, in Oregon, said her mother would love all the late attention that she receives.
"My mother would think it's so cool," Allee said. "She would be tickled in pink to be able to teach something like that, she would probably have a big smile on her face, knowing that she was different, but was successful."
Bentley spent most of her adult life near the rural town of Molalla, in northwestern Oregon, where she and her husband, James Bentley, owned and operated the Bentley Feed Store. The store still sells farm supplies and pets owned by his grandson, Brian Bentley, and his wife, Ashley.
She belonged to the United Methodist Church Molalla, where she sang in a choir and taught at Sunday School. She also led the fire camp. Bentley was occupying a garden in the garden to feed his large family. She and her husband traveled to the 50 states and several countries after their retirement in 1980.
She and her husband decided to donate to the OHSU donation program after reading a moving poem about the memory of loved ones after their death. The family read the poem at the December 2018 Gratitude Service, an annual celebration organized by OHSU to thank donors and their families for their selfless gifts.
Bentley died about 13 years after her husband on October 11, 2017 in Canby.
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REFERENCE: Cam Walker, Mark Hankin, "An Unusual Case of Situs Inversus with Levocardia", 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Anatomists at Biological Experimental, 10:15 – 12:15. April 8th.
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