Baby Garrett Home for The Holidays Thanks to 3D Print Windpipe

Garrett Peterson couldn't breathe. His trachea, due to a rare condition he suffered from birth, was narrowed to the point that it was little more than a pair of slits which left him near suffocation a few times each day. He'd spent the first 18 months of his life hooked up to a ventilator and surrounded by tubes and monitors while his parents looked on in misery and wondered if they'd still have him with them the next year. But doctors at the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Michigan had an answer. They used 3D printing and scanning technology to build a resorbable splint to open up the baby's trachea and let him breathe on his own. You can read more about how doctors are using 3D printing technology here: http://3dprint.com/32924/a-3d-printed-christmas-miracle/


Below is a photo of the 3D printed trachea implant:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...ed-trachea.jpg