Times of India
22 April 2010
By Radha Sharma
Ahmedabad, India

Manorama Agarwal, 68, is a woman found one in a million. All her internal organs are arranged as mirror image inside her body, which means that her heart which should be on the left is on the right, so is the liver and so on. So when she consulted a doctor to get her gall bladder stone removed, the team had to reorient itself due to this genetic defect.

“We removed her gall bladder stone and appendix through laproscope. It was a challenging surgery as one had to use the hand other than one used for performing surgery,”said Dr Manoj Agarwal. Manorama said she had never had a problem with her health till she turned 48. She even bore four children, all normal, who were delivered by midwives in a traditional way at home.

Her troubles began when she started suffering gastric problems. Her stomach would hurt regularly and she experienced acidity. “When we consulted a doctor 20 years ago, he told us all my organs were located on the other side than their normal position. It must be since birth but I came to know about it only when I was 48,”said Manorama whose husband SS Agarwal founded the Maharaja Agrasen School in Drive–In.

Dr Agarwal said her gall bladder stone was 6 to 7 cm and almost covered the gall bladder. “Despite the organ located on the other side, we managed to remove it through minimally invasive surgery. The appendicitis was also removed as it might create problem for diagnosis in future,”said Dr Agarwal.