A 3D printed pizza may seem like the ultimate couch potato’s dream, but we can’t deny when a 3D printer is used to save a life, especially a baby’s life, we’ll happily wait our turn with a 3D printer if that’s what it’s being used for.
Bryan and April Gionfriddo have a 6-month-old baby, Kaiba, who suddenly couldn’t breathe due to his bronchus suddenly collapsing. The baby’s parents took him to the emergency room where it was determined Kaiba would require a splint being inserted in order to hold open his bronchial tube, to hopefully allow the tissue to grow and heal around it properly. Doctors decided to use a 3D printer to create the splint as time was of the essence in order to Kaiba to survive his ordeal.
Kaiba was first imaged in order for technicians to get accurate dimensions to then have those measurements used to create a computer model, which acted as the blueprint. With that information, the 3D printer was able to print out the custom splint doctors needed in about a day.
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