“UPSIDE-DOWN” BODY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 439, 21 May 1937, Page 5

“UPSIDE-DOWN” BODY

HEART ON WRONG SIDE Fuss Resented London, May 8. Benjamin Sexton, 33-year-old brewers’ lorry driver, of Kent, has made a name for himself in medical history. Not only is his heart on the wrong giije, but every other organ in his body is reversed. Yet he is perfectly Healthy. His work entails the lifting of heavy barrels, and he plays football and cricket. This was revealed when Sexton was X-rayed a short time ago. The photographs proved that his case It unique in medical history. Now doctors and specialists are to make a study of the “upside down man,’’ as lie has been nicknamed. “I don’t know what it wrong with me,’ Mr Sexton said: “I have never in my life had a day’s illness. I served in the army and the doctors Passed me as O.K. Four years ago the doctor told me that my heart was on the wrong side, but that I war perfectly all right. But apparently I am all ’upside down.’

At the invi.ation of a well-known Harley Street specialist I was X. rayed. They told: me that I had a complete transposition of the viscera. The first tn medical history. Now they want me to be X-rayed again at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. I really cannot :.ee what all the fuss is about. I am all right.”