This little girl was born with half the heart, and no lungs and technology did save her life.
When Teegan Lexcen was born in August, her diagnosis concluded that she was born with one lung and half of her heart. Doctors sent her home with medication and a hospitable nurse. Her parents, Cassidy and Chad, cared for her in the hope of maintaining their sick daughter’s health, and the twin sister Riley made her comfortable.
A ray of hope
After two months, Teegan was still living, and the Lexcen’s started to question the Minnesota doctors’ for the prognosis for their daughter. They looked around for another opinion. Meanwhile, Teegan’s aunt did the research for the most innovative pediatric surgeon in the US. Dr. Redmond Burke, at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, who was chief of cardiovascular surgery, came into light.
He immediately took an interest in the situation of Teegan, and the Lexcen’s rushed to get their daughter’s medical files and her pictures. Burke, and the group of 30 cardiac physicians and nurses, met to discuss Teegan’s case and potential treatment. The doctors had never worked on an infant missing an entire lung and half a heart.
Using all the essential technology accessible both in and outside of the operating room Dr. Juan Carlos Muniz, a pediatric cardiologist who specializes in imaging, set out to make a model of Teegan’s organs. The bad luck was the printer was broken. Time was critical, and they needed a solution. A less popular option, ‘ virtual reality’ was recommended by another doctor.
Virtual Reality came to the rescue
Muniz downloaded Sketchfab and got hold of Google Cardboard. Downloading pictures of the heart of Teegan, he revealed them to Burke. Using the Goggles of Cardboard, the physicians could look the organs around, analyzing them, seeing places that a flat image wouldn’t reveal. This was a quicker option than the printer and its waiting time to make the models.
The staff was given a chance to plan the solution to fix the baby’s heart, seeing the difficulty. There was a plan created, based on which they went to Miami. Knowing the complications and the shapes of the heart of Teegan, they did not guarantee success. Burke relied on the pictures to not just understand what Teegan’s heart seemed like, but to map the way the surgery would be conducted.
Before she underwent surgery, he went over the plan, taking a look at the pictures generated by Google program and goggles. The only real surprise was Reality. The pictures matched her heart when he started up on Teegan’s surgery. Teegan was breathing on her own and was taken off the ventilator. Doctors anticipate that she will go home this time, without meds intended to keep her departure. A complete recovery is expected.