I noticed something was different with Nia as soon as I delivered her. it just looked like she wasn’t getting enough oxygen. 

 

My name is Kalyn Johnson. I’m an otolaryngology surgeon here at seattle children’s. My specific specialty within that is working with children with airway disorders. It keeps us busy helping these kids breathe.

 

She looked a lot darker than my other two kids when they were born. I was starting to realize that it’s not that she’s dark, it’s that she’s more blue than pink.

 

The thing that makes seattle children special, there’s an incredibly high level of commitment to patient care here. That type of thing translates from the top, to the bottom.

 

They did a ct scan and they looked at her airway and told us that she had something seriously wrong. She had right bronchial stenosis and dr johnson expressed that she will need surgery.



We ran across cases that it was very controversial to the care team whether a surgery should even be attempted or not. 

 

So what’s really unique about the stratasys digital anatomy printer, is that we can replicate all the tissue properties in a tiny little model cartilage and wall and muscle.

 

This is a life-size model of Nia when she was a month old. Going off to her right lung it becomes very very narrow and pinched off. when we started trying to come up with surgical plans for some of our most complex airways, there was not a great way to do virtual surgical planning and actual rehearsal of those surgical procedures because they’re all so unique. The benefits from the planning process to the actual rehearsal that the team goes through preparing for the procedure, down to the ability of the family to understand the procedure and actually explain it to other people, has been amazing to watch.

 

The surgery that was performed on her was a slide tracheoplasty. they cut the stenosed area which is the

Narrowed part of the airway and they slid it up to make one big airway and it worked she’s able to breathe i’m able to breathe as well it’s like everything that happened was a

Dream

 

the more opportunities we’re able to expand our horizons through the application of technology including 3d printing virtual surgical planning we’re moving the finish line closer

 

i’ll never forget it i’m grateful for seattle children’s and i’m extremely extremely grateful for dr johnson

 

it’s not about beating the odds it’s about changing the odds