Google Cardboard Saved Their Baby's Life

Google Cardboard Saves Life of Baby

Cassidy and Chad Lexcen, for the past six months have been too busy to look at the Google Cardboard images which had saved the life of their baby. At that time they had to look after their daughter who hovered on the threshold of life and death at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. Besides that, they had to fly back and forth to take care of their three other children in Chaska, Minnesota.

However, CNN had recently brought the images of Teegan’s heart to the Lexcens and viewing them for the first time made them both happy as well as sad. Google Cardboard seems like a set of huge square goggles. You could stick your iPhone inside and with the appropriate app one can see images in three-dimensional virtual reality.

The paediatric heart surgeons at Nicklaus had utilised the Google Cardboard images in designing a one-of-a kind surgery for Teegan who had been born with half a heart and one lung. The doctors had not come across a child with the anatomy of Teegan in Miami and put in great efforts on what surgery could be helpful for her. Some of them thought of it as a hopeless case.

Images in Google Cardboard – Seen in Virtual Reality

However one member of the team, Dr Juan Carlos Muniz, had the inkling of viewing the images of her heart in Google Cardboard where it could be seen in virtual reality.Muniz had given the device to Dr Redmond Burke, the director of cardiovascular surgery at Nicklaus and he on utilising the device could move around and see the heart from each angle to almost the inside of the heart and could check its structure.

Google Cardboard enabled Burke to map out the surgery which was done in December and in July; her parents were able to see those images. Looking through Google Cardboard in his living room, Chad had exclaimed `Holy cow! This is cool!

It’s almost like a little video game’. Cassidy had added saying, `You don’t picture doctors and surgeons looking through a piece of cardboard and some glasses to plan a main lifesaving surgery. It seems like a toy’. Viewing the images had made the Lexcens appreciate much more the inventive surgery which had saved Teegan though it also brought back memories when her original doctors had informed them that their baby was in-operable and that the baby should be taken home.

Teegan Doing Well after Surgeries

Cassidy had stated that the doctors in Minnesota had informed them to make the best of their time with her and be ready to face her end. The most awful situation was when they had brought Teegan along with her twin sister, Riley back home and had to inform their older daughter, Harper who was then 6 years that Teegan was not going to make through her ailment.

They had to tell her that having two baby girls, one of them would be going to be an angel babyand Harperwas old enough to understand what an angel baby was, informed Cassidy. Nonetheless, the Lexcens did not give up but searched all around the country for a surgical team which would consider operating on their child. Eventually they located their team at Nicklaus and the surgery was conducted in December when she was nearly four months old. Even after the surgery, Teegan’s life still seemed to be vulnerable. She spent six months in the hospital and required two more surgeries inclusive of tracheostomy to aid her to breathe.

She was discharged in June and since then with the exception of a bad cold where she was hospitalized for some days, she has been doing well. Burke had informed them that Teegan needs to put on some weight since at 10 months she weighed only a little over 11 pounds. The Lexcan state that they will always be grateful to Burke and the other doctors and nurses who had taken care of Teegan as well as for Google Cardboard.