Surgeons Use Ping-Pong Ball to Save Little Girl's Life »
Posted By cmetzger4 1 year, 2 months ago in Science & TechnologyIt costs as little as $2 and until now has been considered just a toy, but a simple ping-pong ball is keeping liver transplant patient Mackenzie Argaet alive. In a world first, an Australian surgeon has used the radical method in a transplant operation, which has won him international accolades.
Dr. Albert Shun, from The Children's Hospital at Westmead, used the unorthodox approach when confronted with a medical problem while operating on the 2-year-old girl. Born with a rare gastrointestinal disorder known as biliary atresia, Mackenzie needed the life-saving operation earlier this year. After inserting a portion of an adult-size liver in the little girl, Shun discovered it was too big and was placing pressure on her blood vessels which could have been fatal. Having heard about the use of ping-pong balls in operations overseas, he decided to test their suitability in transplant surgery.
"I was using a sponge as a back-up purpose but there was no way I could close her up the way it was,” he said. Instead he inserted the ping-pong ball and closed up his lucky patient. You can learn more about this unusual procedure in this MSN video.
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cmetzger4
A few weeks ago, I woke up to find myself married to a beautiful woman and the father of two young girls. With no memory ...
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