 Errors can be fatal in an operating room. For decades, diagnoses and surgical plans have been made based on 2D x-rays and MRI scans, requiring doctors to rely on instinct during surgical procedures. When 18-month-old Gabriel started having hundreds of micro-seizures called mind erasers every day, surgeons at Boston Children's Hospital piloted a revolutionary technique to save his brain. Gabriel is 18 months old and he was born January 28th of 2013 and he had a major stroke at birth and actually almost died and Boston Children's Hospital saved him. And about five months later he developed these horrible seizures called infantile spasms. They call them mind erasers actually because many children who end up with these spasms forget everything that they've already learned. The scariest part about it was that we were warned that he could maybe forget us. So every day we would go into his crib and be like, please don't let this be the day that he forgets who we are. We had talked to many people here at the hospital and it was decided that he needed to have something called a hemispherectomy. So a hemispherectomy is probably the most challenging operation and it's used in fairly rare cases where one whole half of the brain is not working well but is causing seizures and involves actually disconnecting one whole half of the brain from the rest of the brain and from everything on the other side. What's really made a big difference is being able to actually get a model of the brain that we can practice the surgery on before doing the surgery. I'll never forget when he said, you know, we're going to do something with your son that we've never done with anybody before and I was like, what? And he said, we have this 3D printing machine and I can make an actual replica of his brain before the surgery. 3D printing has been used to make guns, dresses, cars and prosthetics but using new 3D technology, BCH can simulate the conditions of even the most difficult of surgeries. This technology allows them to take CT and MRI scans of a patient's brain and turn them into 3D printed models which surgeons can practice on before going into the operating room. So I was actually able to perform this operation in its entirety on this child the night before surgery and actually show it to the parents and say this is what we're going to be doing. It was so amazing to know that the surgeon was going to go in and actually do the surgery on this replica before he was going to touch my baby. Until now, medical simulations have been limited to simple training exercises like CPR or intubation. Gabriel's surgery marks a breakthrough in medical simulation. Nobody wants to be the first person to get a hemispheric tami from a particular surgeon ever really. So why would you ever want to have your first operation be on a real patient? And I think that's what we're seeing with the simulator movement. 3D printing using simulation offers an opportunity to cascade knowledge, to share knowledge in a box. If there's a surgeon in another country who is interested in doing a very particular surgery on a patient on a child, imagine the opportunity to send the images of that particular patient, have us print those images, have our surgeons iterate the surgery and send them back essentially a kit that they can hold in their hands. That's a game changer. Being able to actually do a patient-specific operation I think is a real plus that I've really enjoyed having that opportunity. We did the surgery. This boy has been seizure free ever since and his parents are just absolutely thrilled and they're really wonderful people, all three of them. He's doing great. He's starting to hit all these milestones that he missed. He doesn't have to have these seizures take his life away. I hope every hospital in the world ends up with this kind of technology because it is such a godsend. I thank God for this place every day.
 Errors can be fatal in an operating room. For decades, diagnoses and surgical plans
 have been made based on 2D x-rays and MRI scans, requiring doctors to rely on instinct
 during surgical procedures. When 18-month-old Gabriel started having hundreds of micro-seizures
 called mind erasers every day, surgeons at Boston Children's Hospital piloted a revolutionary
 technique to save his brain. Gabriel is 18 months old and he was born January 28th of
 2013 and he had a major stroke at birth and actually almost died and Boston Children's
 Hospital saved him. And about five months later he developed these horrible seizures
 called infantile spasms. They call them mind erasers actually because many children who
 end up with these spasms forget everything that they've already learned. The scariest
 part about it was that we were warned that he could maybe forget us. So every day we
 would go into his crib and be like, please don't let this be the day that he forgets
 who we are. We had talked to many people here at the hospital and it was decided that he
 needed to have something called a hemispherectomy. So a hemispherectomy is probably the most
 challenging operation and it's used in fairly rare cases where one whole half of the brain
 is not working well but is causing seizures and involves actually disconnecting one whole
 half of the brain from the rest of the brain and from everything on the other side. What's
 really made a big difference is being able to actually get a model of the brain that
 we can practice the surgery on before doing the surgery. I'll never forget when he said,
 you know, we're going to do something with your son that we've never done with anybody
 before and I was like, what? And he said, we have this 3D printing machine and I can
 make an actual replica of his brain before the surgery. 3D printing has been used to
 make guns, dresses, cars and prosthetics but using new 3D technology, BCH can simulate
 the conditions of even the most difficult of surgeries. This technology allows them
 to take CT and MRI scans of a patient's brain and turn them into 3D printed models which
 surgeons can practice on before going into the operating room. So I was actually able
 to perform this operation in its entirety on this child the night before surgery and
 actually show it to the parents and say this is what we're going to be doing. It was so
 amazing to know that the surgeon was going to go in and actually do the surgery on this
 replica before he was going to touch my baby. Until now, medical simulations have been limited
 to simple training exercises like CPR or intubation. Gabriel's surgery marks a breakthrough in
 medical simulation. Nobody wants to be the first person to get a hemispheric tami from
 a particular surgeon ever really. So why would you ever want to have your first operation
 be on a real patient? And I think that's what we're seeing with the simulator movement.
 3D printing using simulation offers an opportunity to cascade knowledge, to share knowledge in
 a box. If there's a surgeon in another country who is interested in doing a very particular
 surgery on a patient on a child, imagine the opportunity to send the images of that particular
 patient, have us print those images, have our surgeons iterate the surgery and send
 them back essentially a kit that they can hold in their hands. That's a game changer.
 Being able to actually do a patient-specific operation I think is a real plus that I've
 really enjoyed having that opportunity. We did the surgery. This boy has been seizure
 free ever since and his parents are just absolutely thrilled and they're really wonderful people,
 all three of them. He's doing great. He's starting to hit all these milestones that
 he missed. He doesn't have to have these seizures take his life away. I hope every hospital
 in the world ends up with this kind of technology because it is such a godsend. I thank God
 for this place every day.