Does anybody recognize this?

[Marcia58]

While helping my mom over the weekend, as she sorted some "family historical" items, I was reminded once again of my great aunt, Dorothy.

Dorothy was born in 1910, with multiple congenital issues, and died in 1916. The mortician who embalmed her body said at the time that her heart, lungs, and vascular system were "hooked up backward". I also heard from my grandpa (Dorothy's older brother) when he was alive, that she was mentally disabled, developmental delayed, and had no fingerprints! I've seen pictures of her, and she doesn't look like a Downs syndrome kid, but you can clearly tell something is wrong with her. Along with everything else, she looks like she's lacking in muscle tone.

Does all this info strike any familiar chords with anyone?

TIA,

Marcia

 

[Lynlw]

There are quite a few "syndromes" that have different Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs) as part of the problem, that also can have learning disabilites, unusual facial characteristics and other physical disabilities, the more common (well "common for something that is "rare") ones are Noonan, Digeorge or Turner .


As for her heart problems, these are just my guesses but chances are she either had Transposition of the Great Vessels (or also Great Arteries) TGA where the aorta and pulmonary artery are switched and go to the wrong ventricle, so 1/2 the blood (Red) just goes from the heart, to lungs to heart over and over and the other blood (blue) goes from the heart to body and back to heart without getting oxygen from the lungs..unless there are other defects like holes in the ventricle septums, where some of the blood is able to mix to compensate a little they can't survive very long without surgery. (Justin was born with TGA)

But since she was able to reach the age of 6ish, maybe "Congenitally corrected Transpostion of the Great Arteries" where both the Great Arteries AND ventricles are reversed, so the blood does all travel to the heart, lungs and rest of the body, but the Right ventricle ends up pumping blood to the body instead of the stronger left ventricle so some people live well into adlthood, and others might not make it thru childhood depending how severe their CHDs are

 

[scott.eitman]

It does not sound anything like Down Syndrome. These are not typical traits for people with Down Syndrome.

Scott
Father of Blaise (18) who has Down Syndrome
Board Secretary, The Up Side of Downs of Greater Cleveland

 

[AgilityDog]

I had a co-worker once whose innards were backwards. Stomach on the right, instead of left. She found out when she had her gallbladder out. Seems like her operation was a great attraction for the medical students.
She, however, was otherwise perfectly normal, and worked as a skilled legal secretary until her late 70s.