The doctor whose heart was not in the right place

Lucas Countyans have ended up in the national news for all sorts of reasons, but so far as I know, Dr. Robert Aurelius Culbertson (1901-1961), was the only one to receive broad coverage because his heart was in the wrong place --- one of nature's quirks rather than commentary about his better nature. 

The story was widely published during late winter 1922 and appeared as follows in The Chariton Herald Patriot of Feb. 16, 1922, under the remarkably unimaginative headline, "Heart is on the Wrong Side." Robert, then a second-year medical student, most likely was pranking one of his instructors when the incident reported upon occurred.

+++

An article which appeared in the Ottumwa Courier on Tuesday evening and was sent from Iowa City will be of interest to the many friends of Robert Culbertson, who is a grandson of Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Reese and Mr. John Culbertson of this place, and makes his home here --- his mother, Mrs. Ida Culbertson, being music supervisor in the Soldiers' Orphans Home at Davenport. The article reads as follows:

"His heart's in the right place, but the wrong side. He's a good fellow, is Robert A. Culbertson of Chariton, a sophomore student in medicine at the University of Iowa.

"Dr. J.T. McClintock, junior dean of the medical college, placed a stethoscope to Culbertson's left side in making an examination. No hearing as much as a flutter, he ran around behind him to see what was holding him up.

" 'Fall over, you're dead!' was registered all over his expression.

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, Culbertson reminded the doctor. And just as if New York were at the Golden Gate and San Francisco inside Sandy Hook, Culbertson was found to be slightly disarranged as to his geography. His heart is on his right side, his liver on the left, his thoracic duct has curiously enough sneaked around to leeward when it ought to be windward. In fact, his innards are all in the reverse English.

"Some say his right eye is on the left side and vice versa, but this is not verified.

"At any rate he can eat his three meals a day regardless of a stomach pointing in the wrong direction and has a thoroughly healthy and symetrical grin in spite of the fact that his left cheek has swapped places with his right."

+++

Dr. Culbertson came from a line of long-lived males, so it may be that the internal arrangement of his organs had something to do with his death due to a heart ailment during 1961 aged 60. He's the youngest in the four-generation photo above, submitted to Ancestry.com by Margaret Lloyd. The elders are (from left) Aurelius Culbertson (1819-1908), Lee I. Culbertson (1878-1965) and John Culbertson (1846-1940). Robert's parents, Lee and Ida, were divorced so young John was raised in part by his grandparents.

After completing medical school, Robert practiced in St. Ansgar until the outbreak of World War II. After the war, he went to work for the Veterans Administration. His obituary from The Des Moines Register of Nov. 22, 1961, tells the rest of his story:

Dr. Robert A. Culbertson, 60, of 3523 University Ave., retired Veterans Administration physician, died of a heart ailment Tuesday night (Nov. 21, 1961) at Veterans Hospital.

Dr. Culbertson was chief of the Outpatient Department at Veterans Hospital here from 1951 until his retirement three years ago. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army last February.

Born at Chariton, Dr. Culbertson was graduated from the State University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1924. He practiced at St. Ansgar until his service in World War II. Following the war, he was with the Veterans Administration at Sioux Falls, S.D., before coming to Des Moines.

He was a member of St. John's Lutheran Church, Capital Masonic Lodge, Des Moines Consistory, Za-Ga-Zig Shrine Polk County Medical Society, American Association of Practitioners and the 40 and 8.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Dunn Funeral Home. Burial will be in Resthaven Cemetery.

Surviving are his widow, Martha; two  sons, Robert A. Jr.  of Denver, Colo., and Capt.  Sam R. Culbertson of Fort Bragg N.C.; his mother, Mrs Ida R. Culbertson of San Francisco; a brother,  John, of North Hollywood, Calif., and eight grandchildren.