A postmortem examination one year afterward confirmed this, as a contracted cicatrix was plainly visible on the posterior surface of the heart about an inch above the apex, through which the thorn had penetrated the right ventricle and lodged in the tricuspid valve.

The supposition was that the thorn had been swallowed while eating radishes.

Buck mentions a case of hydatid cysts in the wall of the left ventricle, with rupture of the cysts and sudden death.
It is surprising the extent of injury to the pericardium Nature will tolerate.

In his "Comment on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates," Cardanus says that he witnessed the excision of a portion of the pericardium with the subsequent cure of the patient.

According to Galen, Marulus, the son of Mimographus, recovered after a similar operation.