Salem (Oregon): Rose Marie Bentley was an avid swimmer, raised five kids, helped her husband run a feed store, and lived to the ripe age of 99. It was only after she died that medical students discovered that all her internal organs — except for her heart — were in the wrong place.

The discovery of the rare condition, which was presented this week to a conference of anatomists, was astounding — especially because Bentley had lived so long. People with the condition known as situs inversus with levocardia often have life-threatening cardiac ailments and other abnormalities, according to Oregon Health & Science University.

Cameron Walker’s class at the university in Portland was examining the heart of a cadaver last year when they noticed the blood vessels were different. When they opened the abdominal cavity, they saw that all the other organs were on the wrong side. The unusual blood vessels helped the heart compensate.

Bentley’s family had not known about the condition, which OHSU says occurs only once in every 22,000 births. Apparently Bentley didn’t either.

Bentley, who lived in Molalla, 40 kilometers south of Portland, had led a normal life. Her only recurrent physical complaint was arthritis, her daughter Louise Allee remembered.

But there were signs.

When Bentley was in her 50s, she underwent a hysterectomy, and the doctor also wanted to remove the appendix. But he couldn’t find it, Allee said.

When Bentley had her gallbladder removed at least a decade later, it was on the opposite side of where it should have been, she said.

Bentley had agreed to donate her body to OHSU, Oregon’s only academic health center.

Research has found documented cases in which a person with this condition lived beyond age 73. Bentley surpassed that by 26 years.

AP