Awhile ago Stephen Power, like many unfortunate motorcyclists, got into a very serious wreck.
He didn’t die.
-But he Did break: both arms, both cheek bones, both eye-sockets, his upper jaw, his right leg so badly it needed a bone-graft, and for the hat-trick he also managed to crack his skull.
So OK, not good.
But, before they decided to give 3D-reconstruction-wizard Susmita Bose a run for her money, his frankly-heroic surgeons were able to put Stephen mostly back together again; Except-
The Left Side of his face was still misshapen, and hadn’t lined-up right. The doctors had gotten it as close as they could, until the Ophthalmologists stopped them because they didn’t want anything interfering with his recovering sight.
So in the mean-time after a leisurely workout bench-pressing Antarctica, Steve’s surgeons decided to raise their game even higher, and planned what would be a watershed moment in modern surgery.
In a partnership between Morriston Hospital’s Maxillofacial Unit and the National Centre for Product Design and Development Research (PDR) at Cardiff Metropolitan University, the team 3D-Scanned Stephen’s head and then got to work on the most badass-CGI effort in all of human history. -Suck-it, John Gaeta!
Every. Single. Scan, Design, Cut-Guide, Positioning-Guide, Model, Finished-Level Plan, and Medical-grade Titanium Implant was produced using 3D Scanners, Computer Graphics and ultimately fabricated on 3D-Printers.
The surgery was so complicated, with so many cuts, fractures, and fixes, the surgeons even planned with both Virtual and Actual 3D-Printed physical parts in-order to rehearse their moves before the actual “Game-Day”.
With all these dress-rehearsals & real physical objects to test, Drs. Adrian Sugar, Peter Evans, Sean Peel, Dominic Eggbeer and Ffion O’Malley eventually succeeded in rebuilding & repositioning the entire major outcropping of Stephen’s face with very little error.
So through this tragedy, Stephen turns out to be a guy even luckier than our pal Whiskey The Dog, and one who gets to have just that little bit more of a normal life back instead of hiding and disguising himself as he’d done for months after the first operation.
…
And Who Knows where all this will ultimately go?
Rabid-fanboi-scary Justin-Beiber-Clone-Army?
Full-Face/Off-style duplications of peoples’ favorite moviestars?
–Freaking all the rest of us right straight the hell out of the solar-system?…
Well hopefully, it will be used for more constructive Humpty-Dumpty-type procedures and not abject dystopian pop-weirdness straight out of “Escape From LA”.
Miraculous Details at the Links:
JUMP BONUS!: Machinehead, by Bush
Photo/Video Credits:
Models and implants produced using 3D printing for Stephen Power, by CARTIS
“Engine”, by Robert Linder
Ducati Streetfighter 848 Motorcyle Publicity Photo, by Ducati
“Machinehead” video, by Bush and Interscope Records
Links:
• Source: NHS-Wales
• via: Mashable
• More Coverage: CARTIS Reconstructive Surgery | BBC
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