Range of Motion Test Reveals Patient Can Move in Direction Not Previously Known to Exist

A routine range-of-motion assessment at the Rochester Movement Clinic was interrupted Tuesday when patient Sandra Glenohumeral demonstrated shoulder mobility in a direction that her examining kinesiologist, Dr. Kevin Abduction, described as 'geometrically novel.' 'I asked her to raise her arm to 180 degrees of flexion,' Dr. Abduction said, reviewing the session notes with visible disturbance. 'She went past 180. She went past 200. And then her arm went... somewhere else. I can't describe where. My goniometer can't describe where. The protractor only goes to 360 and she exceeded that.' Glenohumeral, 33, a yoga instructor with a history of joint hypermobility, said the movement 'felt normal' and that she had been doing it since childhood. 'My mom used to call it my special trick,' she said. 'I thought everyone's shoulder did that.' 'No one's shoulder does that,' Dr. Abduction said. 'No shoulder in the history of documented human anatomy has done that. I've been measuring joints for fifteen years and I have never seen a glenohumeral joint operate outside of three-dimensional space.' The clinic has invited specialists from the departments of orthopedics, physics, and what Dr. Abduction vaguely described as 'someone who understands topology' to observe a follow-up session. Glenohumeral has been asked to refrain from performing the movement in public until the clinical team can determine whether it is 'medically remarkable or existentially threatening.' 'I just want to know if I'm flexible or if something is wrong,' she said. 'Yes,' said Dr. Abduction. 'The answer to that question is yes.'