Google Cardboard Virtual Reality Kit Helped Surgeons Save 'Inoperable' Twin Babies

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Thanks to the virtual reality kit Google Carboard, one of the "inoperable" twin babies has another chance at life.

One of the 'inoperable' twins from Minnesota named Teegan Lexcen was born last year with numerous heart defects and one lung. Although her identical twin sister, Riley, was found to have no abnormalities, Teegan's condition was considered fatal. However, the doctors were able to carry out a successful procedure on the four-month-old baby with the help of the Google Cardboard Virtual Reality device which the surgeons used to render a 3D model of her heart.

The twin girls were born in August 2015 to parents Cassidy and Chad Lexcen. They approached Dr. Redmond Burke of Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami to take care of the sick twin.

When Dr. Burke examined Teegan, he knew the operation would be complicated. He needed to find a way to visualize her heart and other organs using a 3D model. However, it will take critical time and significant cost to produce it so they used the suggested Google Cardboard, a low-cost virtual reality device that uses a smartphone to give 3D images life.

"In 30 years, I've never seen a child who is 3 months old and had her heart in her left chest and had no left lung and one lung in her right chest," Dr. Burke told Today. "That just doesn't happen. There's no textbook you can open and say, let's do this."

The outlet added that the virtual reality device was suggested by a colleague, Dr. Juan Carlos Muniz. He used an app called Sketchfab to download pictures of Teegan's heart onto his iPhone, CNN reports. Dr. Burke was able to view the heart in 3D giving him visual access to the inner workings of the little girl's heart.

"He handed me this cardboard box, and I said, 'What is this?' 'He said, 'Give me your cell phone,'" he explained. "I picked it up and I could see the whole heart, I could see the chest wall, I could see all the things I was worried about in creating an operation."

He adds that he would have done the operation whether he had the device or not; though it greatly helped him during the operation.

Headlines and Global News reports that it has been more than a month since Teegan was operated. The baby is able to breathe on her own since her ventilator was taken off. She is recovering but it is likely that she will have more surgeries in the future.