Catherine O’Hara's rare condition that flipped her organs around explained

Actor Catherine O'Hara had an unusual condition, but didn't realise she had it until she was an adult.

Beloved actor O'Hara was known for her roles in Home Alone, Beetlejuice, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Schitt's Creek, and died at her Los Angeles home on January 30, at the age of 71.

She became known for her brilliant comic acting, and her career saw a further spike in her later years for her role as the accent-fluid, fabulously be-wigged Moira Rose in cult comedy Schitt's Creek.

She is survived by her husband Bo Welch, to whom she was married for 33 years, as well as their two sons Matthew, 31, and Luke, 29.

O'Hara previously spoke about how as an adult, she was diagnosed with an unusual medical condition which only affects about 1 in 10,000 people.

The condition can lead to some negative side effects, but its unusual nature means that many people who have it don't even realise, and even find out by accident.

O'Hara delighted a new generation of fans with her performance in Schitt's Creek (Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

This is dextrocardia - where the heart is located on the opposite of the chest to what is more common.

There are several kinds of dextrocardia, including the heart being located closer to the centre of the chest, which could potentially result in someone being more susceptible to cardiac conditions.

There's also dextrocardia situs inversus totalis, where all of the internal organs are mirrored inside the body, but otherwise function normally.

In 2021, O'Hara revealed that she didn't realise she had the condition until she went for a series of standard exams such as an EKG and chest X-ray for tuberculosis as part of a test for their son to attend nursing school. She recalled the moment she found out she had the unusual condition, and her husband's hilarious reaction.

“When the doctor told us that my heart was on the right side and my organs were flipped, my husband immediately said, ‘No, her head’s on backwards,’” O’Hara said.

O'Hara had a long and successful career (Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images)

While the condition doesn't have any specific symptoms, there are still some dangers with it that make it very useful to know that you have it.

For example, doctors are trained to look for pains or sensations in certain parts of the body – so, normally, a red flag for a heart attack would be pain on the left side of the chest. But with dextrocardia, this would be reversed on the right side, meaning someone might not see it as a red flag for a heart attack if they didn't know the patient had dextrocardia.

It's believed that the condition in congenital, and is more common in men.

Other famous people who have the condition include singer and dancer Donny Osmond, 68, and Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias, 50.

O'Hara's cause of death has not been made public, and it is not known if this condition was connected to her death.