Medical marvel of woman with condition never before seen in England

Mary McIntosh, (79), diagnosed with rare disease called ischemic esophagus.

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AN Oldham woman flummoxed experts when she was admitted to hospital with a condition never seen in England before.

Doctors at Royal Oldham Hospital were able to diagnose Mary McIntosh, of Lea View, Royton, with ischmeic oesophagus but because of its rarity - it has only struck 131 times across the world in the last 50 years - they knew very little about how to treat it.

It began when the 79-year-old was visiting her local GP surgery for routine blood tests on May 2.

While there Mary started getting chest pains and was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack.

At the hospital she vomited around seven pints of liquid which is referred to as "coffee ground vomitis" because of its similarities to the colouration of coffee grains.

After further examinations of her oesophagus, doctors diagnosed Mary with the condition, informing her that she was the first person in England to have it and was only the 132nd person in the past 50 years to have it.

With little known about the condition, the doctors took a cautious approach and Mary was placed on a drip and starved of food and drink because it was feared that any substances travelling down her oesophagus may aggravate it.

They then set about trying to contact people from around the world to find out more about the condition.

But after 10 days Mary improved and was deemed well enough to go home and with the help of her daughters Carol, who travelled from Sydney, Australia, Catherine and Fiona, she is going from strength to strength. She is being monitored and will go back to hospital for check ups on her condition.

Mary said: "It seems to be much better, I can eat a bit now. They are hoping it is completely gone.

"They had no idea because they have never come across it. I think it is just something that happens and they don't know why, at first I just thought I was having heart burn off something.

"They just kept taking pictures of it and having a look through because they had never come across it before.

"I'm glad to be home now. I was contained to the bed the whole time, it was so boring, you are just lying there just looking at the ceiling. I was glad to be able to walk, I've been walking around my living room and building my strength up."

Carol added: "She was very lucky to get through it. I said to them what is it and they said 'we can't answer that'. I asked what happens next and the doctor looked at me and said they have contacted people around the world to find out. She is special."

Mary's case is now also being used as a case study for a medical journal in Germany.