While the literature contains several excellent discussions of paradoxical embolism,1-5 the diagnosis continues to be one made only at the postmortem table. The purpose of this paper is to report a case in which the diagnosis was made before death and emergent surgical intervention attempted.
Report of a Case
A 38-year-old white male citrus farmer was admitted to the hospital Aug. 12, 1959, with the chief complaint of having had a "stroke" three weeks previously. He had awakened early in the morning, the day following a trip to the beach, with paralysis of the right arm and leg. He was hospitalized in another hospital, and three weeks later was transferred to the Veterans Administration Hospital, Coral Gables, Fla.He had been previously hospitalized on the Neurological Service of this hospital in June, 1958, following 11 days of observation in another hospital. At that time he had experienced the sudden