FIVE THINGS ABOUT ERNEST ’S HEART

1 UNDIAGNOSED HEALTH PROBLEM

Explorer Ernest Shackleton, author of The Heart of the Antarctic, led three British South Pole expeditions. On the 100th anniversary of his Endurance expedition, doctors writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reveal the adventurer may have had a congenital defect known as a “hole in the heart.”

2 THE SYMPTOMS

During his second expedition, Shackleton apparently alarmed his companions with repeated attacks of breathlessness and weakness — even though he had proven he was capable of severe exertion and made the first crossing of the mountains and glaciers of the island of South Georgia without any health issues. 3 THE EVIDENCE

Experts say the truth of his condition can be found in diary entries made by Dr. Eric Marshall, medical officer of Shackleton’s second expedition to the Antarctica in 1907- 9. “The detection and treatment of an atrial septal defect is now reasonably straightforward, but was not available to Shackleton,” writes Dr. Ian Calder, a retired anesthetist who was inspired to delve into the issue after his own experience crossing South Georgia. 4 PREPARED TO ACCEPT RISK

The study’s authors say they believe that Shackleton knew he had something wrong with his heart because he avoided being examined by doctors who might have stopped him from going to Antarctica 5 DEADLY CONDITION

Shackleton died of a heart attack in 1922, hours after arriving in South Georgia at the beginning of his fourth expedition. He was 47 years old.