Catherine O'Hara spent her life dealing with a rare genetic condition that only 1 in 10,000 people have. The beloved actress died on January 30 aged 71 after a "brief illness", sparking a 911 call after she had difficulty breathing, and a cause of death is yet to be revealed. But prior to this, her whole life she battled an ongoing condition called situs inversus, which means some organs are positioned in reverse in the body. 

Many people with the condition have no medical symptoms related to it whatsoever, but cardiac problems have been considered the most common complication. It's found in 0.01% of the population, and the most common situation involves complete right to left reversal of the organs, with the heart not being in its usual position; but the relationship between the organs should not change. The actress opened up on the condition during a 2020 interview. 

Speaking on Kathryn Hall's Virtual Happy Hour, she laughed about the condition and said: "I'm a freak. I don't even know the name because I don't want to know the name." She did note that she had the type of situs inverses known as dextrocardia, where the heart faces the right side of the chest while the other organs are in reverse. 

She said: "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." After finding out about the condition, she admitted that she didn't really want to find out any information about it, adding that she "loves Western medicine", but didn't want to be a part of it. 

She continued: "People are gonna think I'm so ignorant not to know this, but I kind of don't want to know, because I didn't know before." 

While most people will be completely unaware and go on to live a very normal life, it's noted that it complicates organ transplantation as donor organs will more likely come from donors without the condition. The condition is typically noticed when individuals seek medical attention for something unrelated, such as appendicitis, where their pain will be in the lower left abdomin rather than the typical area of the lower right.