Doctors are turning to 3D printing to help a toddler who suffered from terrible seizures known as “mind erasers.”
“The technology is coming. The question is: how do we develop and make use of the technology that will have an immediate effect on how we take care of children?” said a doctor involved in the case.
The doctors printed a 3D brain to practice the complicated surgery required.
Gabe suffered from a disorder which caused him to have hundreds of micro-seizures per day. It was possible that Gabe could have his entire memory erased–he would even forget his partents.
Gabe had had a major stroke at birth.
Doctors recommended a hemispherectomy, a complicated operation that disconnects the healthy half of the brain from the one causing seizures.
Doctors scan a brain, print 3D models, and practice operations on the models before attempting the proceedure on a person.
“No one wants to be the first person to get a hemispherectomy from a surgeon, ever.”
Gabriel’s subsequent surgery earlier this year took close to 10 hours, and went according to plan.
Gabriel, now a year and a half old, is seizure-free. Challenges can be expected. “But kids’ brains are so resilient,” his mother said. “He’s already re-wired himself. He’s starting to hit the milestones he missed — he wakes up smiling every day.”
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Doctors use 3D printing to help a toddler who suffered from terrible seizures known as "mind erasers"
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