Medical Forecasts Disproved: Mirror Organs May Serve Long

  A woman with her heart on the right has normal energetic life
Once a woman called the Vechernyaya Kazan newspaper and told about her odd physical condition. She read lots of stories about twins born with mirror placement of organs; she heard it was a rare phenomenon, but at the same time had her heart situated on the right.

A permanent reader of the newspaper Nelya Geliakberovna (she asked not to mention her whole name in order to avoid unnecessary interest) recently celebrated her 62nd birthday. When she was 7 and was going to start school studies, Nelya learnt that her heart had unusual placement, it was on the right side. Doctors in Kazan immediately took alarm as it was just for the third time that mirror placement of the heart was registered in the city. Doctors decided to send the girl to Moscow for a special examination.

When the parents refused to take the daughter to Moscow, the doctors said that she wouldn't live longer than 12 years; then they showed mercy and said the life would last for 17 years. "Now I am 62; my life is ordinary, nothing unusual has ever happened yet."

Nelya was born 10 days before WWII in Russia's Zhitomir region; soon the family was evacuated to the city of Kazan. The father became a soldier and went to the front. Before the departure he had time just to glance at his newly born daughter. On the front the father met a Serbian sorcerer who said the whole of the family was alive and the youngest baby was waiting for the father most of all. When the man got back home from the front, Nelya hardly recognized the father as she only saw his photos. And the father treated the youngest daughter particularly; that was probably because she resembled him very much. Neighbors were astonished at the girl and told the parents: "She is so brave; there is hardly a thing of which she is afraid. Does she have two hearts to be so brave?"
 
Nelya had only one heart, but it was situated on the right.  The medical condition is called dextracardia. Contemporary medics treat people with hearts situated on the right as normal patients, but at the same time they recognize that mirror placement of organs is a rare phenomenon. At least, neither the chief physician of the republic of Tatarstan nor the head physician of a cardiologic dispensary could recollect such patients. It was reported some months ago that a girl with mirror placement of organs was born, however the information hasn't been proved.

Nelya Galiakberovna used her courage and energy in a right way: she worked in a savings bank for almost the whole of her life. Some may say that this job is not exhausting, but the woman experienced a lot working there: there were robberies, cash shortage and she even had to fire for the sake of self-defense. Her heart, so unusually situated on the right side, endured everything. The pensioner even endured a heart attack after the death of her husband. All the same the woman still insists she doesn't feel she is particular, on the contrary she thinks she is very much like other people. "When I go to the hospital to have my cardiogram taken half of the medical personnel come to have a look at me. I understand that my phenomenon is interesting from a professional point of view for them. When I was a girl, my doctor usually called me "a particular human".

Marina Talagayeva