3D VR Image Rendered By Google Cardboard Sets A Milestone In The History of Cardiac Surgery

Doctors at Nicklaus Children's hospital in Miami have used a toy like 'Google Cardboard', worth less than $20 in online stores, to save a baby's life. Earlier, the doctors have given up all hopes for her survival and asked parents Chad and Cassidy couple, for taking the baby home to die.

The child has been reported to born with only half a heart and one lung in August. However, Dr Redmond Burke, chief of cardiovascular surgery at the Miami hospital has decided to provide Teegan, a four month old baby, a shot through saving life, according to a report published in Mirror.

Four weeks after the surgery, baby Teegan has been removed from ventilation. She is now breathing her own and doctors expect her to go home within the next two weeks making a full recovery, reports CNN.

Google Cardboard looks alike a set of big square goggles. Sticking into an iPhone and with the appropriate app, three dimensional virtual reality (VR) images may be seen. Doctors at the Miami Children's' hospital have used the device to map out the surgery using the 3D image rendered by Google's recently invented Cardboard.

Teegan Lexcen has been born in August with a single lung and half of a heart in a Minnesota hospital. Doctor's at the hospital have informed the parent couple, Cassidy and Chad Lexcen that they are incapable of saving the baby's life and predicted her death soon, reports Mail Online.

They have sent the baby home with medications with a hospice nurse to provide comfort as much as possible. This appears to be unusual in modern medical science to give up hope before the patient dies.

The baby girl has remained alive after two months as a miracle and her parents started to search for a second doctor's opinion. Chad's sister has sent him a list of 20 most innovative doctors alive till date. Dr Redmond Burke's name has been furnished atop the list.

Burke and a team of 30 cardiac doctors and nurses at the hospital have met three times in a week to discuss the treatment option for the baby. Situation has appeared clumsy since the hospital's 3D printer found broken.

Dr. Juan Carlos Muniz, pediatric cardiologist specializing in imaging has got the idea for using virtual reality image from Dr David Ezon. Ezon is also a pediatric surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Using an app, called Sketchfab, Muniz and Burke both have become capable of viewing Teegan's heart image into a smart phone. The Google cardboard has allowed the doctors to see the baby's heart from every angle and conducted the 7 hour long life saving surgery into Teegan's heart on December 10.

Teegan Lexcen, four month old daughter of Chad and Cassidy Lexcen, has given up hopes for her survival as declared by the doctors. But the baby's survival even after two months has raised doubt on their minds and gone for second opinion to Dr Redmond Burke. Burke along with a team of 30 doctors and nurses of Miami hospital have reportedly used 3D image rendered by toy like Google Cardboard worth less than $20 dollar. The successful surgery has been termed as the first to use virtual reality image and the baby is expected to return home safe by the next two weeks.