Over the course of my career, I've done over 1,000 open
heart surgeries in children with congenital heart disease.
His body could only work so long with that kind of
a heart.
Joseph's parents had a decision to make.
He might be able to have this really risky surgery, but
yet a life-changing surgery for him.
[electronic music]
Laurie and Ryan love kids.
It's a party here every day.
We have seven kids:
Three biological, four adopted.
Three have congenital heart disease.
Laurie remembers when she first saw Joseph.
I fell in love with his face.
We knew right away he had a severe congenital heart disease.
He had already had two surgeries in China.
At some point his heart would peter out and he would need
a new heart.
So they found out he was a candidate for a pretty risky
type of heart surgery.
Something called a biventrical repair.
If the surgery was successful, he wouldn't need a future
heart transplant.
He could keep his repaired heart forever.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
In our field, it's even more critical.
So this is Dr. Anagnostopoulos.
Dr. A for short.
Every patient is different.
The margin for error is small due to the patient's size.
Dr. A said Joseph's heart was one of the most complicated
he'd ever seen.
He had five different things that were abnormal.
One.
There were a couple of big holes inside his heart.
Two.
There was a valve that was abnormally formed.
Three.
The great arteries leaving the heart were flipped.
Four.
The veins were coming to the wrong side
in the upper chambers of the heart.
And five.
His heart, rather than looking to the left side, it was
looking to the right side.
Enter the 3D printer.
It has been thought as the ultimate visualization
technique.
This is Alejandro.
He's a researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Visualization is a key factor for surgeons before they
do surgery, because they are gonna face something that
they have only seen in two dimensions when they see
an image.
Here, we're looking at Joseph's heart.
We start by acquiring high resolution images of the heart.
We then generate a model using 3D printing.
So having a model like this that you can print cheaply
allows surgeons to do all kinds of things.
You see here we cut out the front part of the heart
in order to be able to see inside.
They can actually look inside.
They can print the exact size or blow it up.
They can hold it in their hands.
And Dr. A did all of this before Joseph's surgery.
Believe me, it's spend a lot of hours looking at the model
and preparing for that surgery.
You kind of feel like an athlete or musician who's about
to perform.
You get into the zone.
So that's how I approach it.
You get locked in, you get in the zone, and you try to get
the job done.
They had kind of three stages that Dr. A had to do
throughout the surgery and we knew this going into the
surgery, if each step went well, he would complete the
final repair.
You know, we kinda celebrated as each step went.
We knew we were one closer to the full repair.
[electronic music]
The surgery lasted over 10 hours.
Joseph's surgery was a success.
They did the 3D heart to prepare for it and that was just
incredible.
And he's a healthy little boy now.
It's pretty incredible that he went from a kid who needed
the possibility of a new heart one day, to a kid who will
have this heart forever.
For a complicated surgery like Joseph's, having this model
made a big difference.
The team is trying to take this technology further.
They're starting to 3D print the hearts of unborn babies
to be ready for surgery right when they're born.
And they're connecting tubes to these 3D printed hearts
to better understand how different surgery tactics
will affect blood flow.
Ultimately, it comes down to creating a more customized
approach to medicine.
The big advantage in my mind right now is that you can
personalize the models and be able to prepare the teams.
And in the future, Dr. A thinks that 3D models could have
a huge impact on the way that surgeons train.
As we change the materials that we use, we're going to be
able to take the hearts of unusual patients, print them,
and potentially do the operation four or five times before
we even get into the operating room.
And as for Joseph...
He's a healthy little boy now.
He's just as active as any other little kid.
You wouldn't know it at all that he has a heart condition.
He can, essentially, live a normal life.
We're just happy to be part of finding a solution that is
gonna help kids now and in the future.
We can't wait to see what happens next.
[electronic music]