Annotate to identify and provide commentary on PDIDLS.
Heart surgeons use Google Cardboard to save baby's life
Published January 08, 2016 FoxNews.com
Thanks to a simple cardboard contraption and an innovative set of surgeons, a Minnesota baby
born with only one lung and half a heart is expected to make a full recovery from surgery after
doctors initially told her family her situation was helpless.
Fox 2 Now reported via CNN that doctors at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami used a set of
Google Cardboard glasses, a virtual reality product that retails for less than $20 online, to map
out the surgery for little Teegen Lexcen, who was born in August.
Teegen’s parents, Cassidy and Chad Lexcen, told CNN that their doctors in Minnesota initially
sent them home, saying Teegen would die and there was nothing they could do to help her. Two
weeks later, Teegen was still alive, so the Lexcens’ began searching for a second opinion.
CNN reported that Chad’s sister eventually stumbled upon an article called “The 20 Most
Innovative Pediatric Surgeons Alive Today,” and Dr. Redmond Burke, the chief of
cardiovascular surgery at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, the No. 3 surgeon on the list,
caught the Lexcens’ eyes.
They contacted the hospital and heard back immediately. Although they hadn’t seen a condition
like Teegen’s before, they brainstormed ways to help the little girl. Burke then reportedly
coordinated with Dr. Juan Carlos Muniz, a pediatric cardiologist who specializes in imaging, to
make a 3-D model of the little girl’s heart.
The team’s 3-D printer was out of service, but Muniz thought of a different option— an idea
inspired by conversations about virtual reality with Dr. David Ezon, a pediatric cardiologist at
the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
In light of the 3-D printer being broken, Ezon took the Google Cardboard he had on hand and
used it to pre-plan Teegen’s heart surgery using virtual reality. The technology was even more
precise than the 3-D images he’d produced on his computer— with the Google Cardboard, he
could manipulate the model of Teegen’s heart to view it at different angles and perceive its
structure from inside the organ, CNN reported.
During the Dec. 10 surgery on Teegen, doctors found Google Cardboard was more helpful than
3-D printing could have been. With the device, CNN reported that they were able to see her
heart’s condition and location relative to the other parts of her body, and they were able to
conceptualize a new surgery that overcame the challenges of Teegen’s heart having only one
ventricle instead of the normal two.
Doctors carried out the surgery uneventfully, and on Wednesday, four weeks post-surgery,
Teegen was breathing on her own. CNN reported that doctors predicted she would make a full
recovery and be home within two weeks.
I.
Main Idea and Details
After you read and annotate, go back and read one more time. Box in words that keep
being repeated. This will help determine the main idea.
What is the main idea of the article?_______________________________________________________
How do you know? _____________________________________________________________________
What are some important details that support the main idea?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
II.
Tone and Mood: Now, go back and look at the diction surrounding the main idea. This will
help you derive a tone and mood.
What is the tone (author’s attitude) toward the article? You need a specific word. __________________
What is the mood? In other words, how did the article make you feel? ___________________________
Where there any appeals (ethos, logos, pathos)? If so, which ones? ______________________________
III.
Purpose: Based on the diction, details, tone, mood, and appeals, what is the purpose of
the article?
____________________________________________________________________
IV.
Summary: Now, think of CPR (character or event, problem, resolution). Write a summary
of the article.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
V.
Now, you will plan for an essay, on your own paper, according to the following prompt. You
can any of the HELPS examples to support your thesis. It might be a good idea to use this
article or a personal anecdote. Prompt: Explain the benefits of innovation.
Essay Guidelines:
Thesis
Use the prompt
as sentence stem.
Brainstorm/Big
Ideas/Answer Question
HELPS that
would work.
Reason 1
Reason 2
TS
TS
SE
SE
COMM
COMM
Introduction: Hook, line, sinker (thesis)
Body paragraph(s): Topic sentence that stems
from the thesis and introduces the example. The
specific example is next. You need full details
that describe the HELPS of your choice. At the
end of the body paragraph, state what you
learned, or what the scenario conveys.
**Sometimes, it is best to write one body
paragraph to fully develop your ideas and
demonstrate a progression. That is what will be
assessed.
Conclusion: Restate the thesis creatively.