3D-Printed Model Heart Helps Doctors Save a Little Girl’s Life
We’ve seen several accounts of 3D-printing being used to save the lives of patients, and out of Florida comes another such wonderful story.
Cardiovascular surgeons at Miami Children’s Hospital turned to 3D printing to print out a scale replica of a 4-year-old girl’s heart so they could plan for a complicated surgery to save the girl’s life. She suffers from a congenital condition called total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC), which basically means her veins pump blood to the wrong part of her heart, causing breathing difficulties, lethargy, and a weakened immune system.
After a few Band-Aid surgeries that proved to be temporary fixes, doctors knew they needed to come up with a solution. The situation was dire, as the cardiac team estimated that she would live for only another few weeks, if not days, without a permanent fix. Using the 3D-printed model, the doctors were able to plan a surgery that hadn’t been performed before using parts from a donor heart, and today young Adanelie Gonzalez’s blood is flowing normally and she’s recovering in the hospital.
The story recalls a couple of other similar cases, such as one at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, where last year doctors also practiced a complex heart surgery on a 3D model before operating on a baby.
“3D printing adds another element in caring for extremely complex conditions where surgical intervention is not typically thought possible,” pediatric cardiologist Nancy Dobrolet said in a release. “In Adanelie’s case, the 3D model provided us with a way to create a surgical option for her survival.”
It’s another example of the miracles 3D printing is bringing to health care, and if it isn’t enough to give you all the feels, we don’t know what will.
A physician holds the 3D model of a young girl’s heart as he explains the operation to save her life. (Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET)
(Via 3DPrint)
