Photo Source: www.thinkgeek.com

I puffed away at my morning stretches and exercises. The radio was on as a distraction from the pain and boredom. But I was composing a mental to do list and only half listening.

Until.

Until the announcer said something about 3D printers and tracheomalacia. He went on to define the medical term my husband and I first heard in 1982. The doctor had used it to explain why our newborn baby’s breathing was a constant wheeze and rattle. “The cartilage in his trachea isn’t fully developed, so his windpipe flops and makes the wheezing sound.” He then offered reassurance that in our baby’s case it wasn’t life-threatening, and he would outgrow it.

He did.

The radio announcer’s voice pulled me back to the present. He told the story of a little boy named Garrett. His windpipe was so floppy, it often collapsed. Then Garrett couldn’t breathe. He turned blue. It happened so often that Garrett was 16 months old and had never left the hospital.

Until.

Until two men at the University of Michigan—a biomedical engineer named Scott Hollister and Dr. Glenn Green, a specialist in pediatric otolaryngology—came up with an idea. They decided to use a 3D printer to design and build a splint to put around Garrett’s trachea to keep it from collapsing.

It worked.

At 18 months, Garrett was still in the hospital. But he was getting stronger and needed less help breathing. He smiles now and doesn’t turn blue. His parents are thrilled. The splint will expand as Garrett grows and eventually dissolve in his body when his windpipe is strong enough to function on its own.

I cried.

To read the rest of The Future Is Now and posts by other special needs parenting bloggers, go to the Not Alone website.

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