14 DAY TRIAL // Oxford Performance Materials has used the Osteofab 3D printer to basically close a hole that a woman from Somalia, Ayaa Oma Muhumed, has been living with for decades.
Back during the Somali Civil War, the woman, a girl of the mere age of 2 at the time, was shot in the face.
Somehow, she miraculously survived. Unfortunately, the event left her with a big hole in the right side of her face, right next to her nose.
A gruesome fate, not only because of the disfigurement, but because the injury made it hard to eat properly. You can't exactly sip water when you can't create a difference in pressure inside your mouth.
Now, though, after undergoing surgery, the woman's life should change. It wasn't a perfect fix by any means, as her face will never fully mend, but the difference is clear.
Biocompatible 3D printing has been evolving very quickly. The Osteofab 3D printer uses a PEKK polymer to make medical and implant parts.
This is just one year after the printer and polymers were used to make a Patient Specific Cranial Device.
We can only hope that charitable interventions like this one continue to happen even after all proofs of concept have been made.
Speaking of which, the Foundation for Orthopedic Reconstruction (FOR) donated the Oxford Performance Material’s Osteofab Patient Specific Medical Implant. The team of 20 medical and surgical experts, including Dr. John Avier and Dr. David Chin, were all volunteers. As for the surgery itself, it took 11 hours.