What would you be thinking if a doctor told you or a loved one that your heart was beating under your kidney?
You probably would be pretty alarmed right?
Well it happened to a Live Oak woman suffering from a chronic lung condition due to premature birth – her right lung was removed at age 4 and her heart has moved around her body since. April Pinkard says she could even detect a faint heartbeat on her back at times.
This condition is so rare it doesn’t even have a name but is best described as a heart that is mobile or floating. And according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, she is the only person in the world to have a condition like this.
What’s a doctor to do?
Surgeons at the Mayo Clinic first filled Pinkard’s chest with water to relocate her heart to its proper place. Pinkard says doctors found her heart lying on its side between her liver and spleen between two ribs and that it actually stopped when the surgeons touched it.
But they needed to do something to make her heart stay put. So surgeons employed a standard breast augmentation procedure to place breast implants in the spot where her right lung used to be.
Now her heart is situated in the right place and not moving about…but Pinkard’s other conditions continue to worsen as her bones are very fragile along with other things.
What an innovative solution to a complex problem!
And all done here in North Florida! Plastic surgery procedures can not only give you a new look and reinvigorate your confidence, it can perhaps provide a solution to a life threatening problem as well.