Breast Implants Used To Treat Rare Heart Condition

Thursday Oct 9, 2008

Breast Implants Used To Treat Rare Heart Condition

There are probably few things scarier than discovering an un-diagnosed but life-threatening medical condition. Being the only person in the world to ever suffer from such a condition would make most people downright petrified!

This was the case for a Florida woman — a condition so rare that it has no medical name — her heart was found to be moving around in her body. Doctors found it stuck in her rib cage under her kidney, on its side.

According to local news reports, the 35-year-old woman was born prematurely and has suffered numerous life-long complications, including an underdeveloped and diseased lung. The lung was removed when she was only 4 years old but not before the disease had spread to the remaining lung. As an adult, she’s had to endure chronic lung disease, which triggers chronic asthma, chronic bronchitis and chronic pneumonia. An onset, treatable for most adults, could easily send her to the emergency room. The empty lung cavity is what allowed her heart to shift and float in her body.

Because her doctors had never seen the condition before, they were initially at a loss to come up with a treatment. One doctor said the patient was the only person in the world with the disorder. Doctors were left to ponder the course of action for this situation. The solution? Breast implants.

“She calls herself a freak of nature because most doctors she’s seen have never seen this condition before,” according to her husband.

It required a four and one-half hour operation, she describes as life-saving, but breast implants — used in the traditional breast augmentation procedure — successfully filled the space where the lung used to be and holds the heart in the correct position.

In spite of the degenerative nature of her condition, she remains upbeat and positive, even though her health is deteriorating exponentially faster than a healthy adult of the same age.

“I coughed, sneezed and farted all at the same time and broke six ribs a few months ago. I guess it’s a talent,” she says with a hearty laugh. “They say I’ll eventually sever my spinal cord, but that’s okay, I’ll just run people over with my wheelchair and leave tire marks to prove I was there,” she added, also saying that she wants her chair motorized with a horn.

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