22 V2 Wednesday February 23 2022 | the times
News
A baby has been allowed home for the
first time after a life-saving operation
for which surgeons prepared by practis-
ing on a 3D-printed model of her heart.
Pippa Fulton had a very rare combi-
nation of heart conditions and weighed
just 2kg (4lb 10oz) when she was born a
month premature at University Hospi-
tal Southampton on August 6 last year.
She had a transposition of the great
arteries — a complex malformation of
her heart and main blood vessels. She
also had juxtaposition of the atriums, a
condition affecting the chambers of the
heart; another heart defect called total
anomalous pulmonary vein drainage;
and a duplicate of the main vein in her
upper body.
Doctors tried to repair her heart
when she was a day old but she was so
tiny — her heart was no bigger than a
walnut — that they could not finish the
operation. They resolved to wait until
she reached 5.5kg to try again, rehears-
ing for hours on a detailed 3D-printed
model of her heart.
They used a CT scan to design the
model, which replicated Pippa’s heart
in minute detail. It was printed in Bel-
fast and couriered to the hospital with
funding from the charity WessexWhile we know jogging and swimming
help keep us healthy as we age, never
underestimate the power of pottering.
Spending four hours a day on cook-
ing, washing up, showering and garden-
ing can reduce your risk of heart dis-
ease, scientists have found.
Surgeons use 3D model of girl’s
heart to practise saving her life
Heartbeat. Such models are used only
in the most complex cases and are kept
so they can be used for teaching.
Mr Nicola Viola, a congenital cardiac
surgeon, and Dr Trevor Richens, an
interventional paediatric cardiologist,
operated for seven hours at Southamp-
ton Children’s Hospital on January 27.
Pippa, now six months old, has finally
gone home with her parents, Lizzie and
Nathan Fulton, who praised the “ex-
ceptional” surgeons and spoke of their
experience. Mr Fulton, 34, a public sec-
tor worker, said: “Seeing our baby girl
taken down for surgery was one of the
longest and hardest days of our lives.”
Mrs Fulton, 30, a primary school
teacher, said: “We had many conversa-
tions about Pippa not making it this far,
so to know that she now has a chance of
survival, and to now have brought her
home at long last, is incredible — we
can be a family together at last.”Emma Yeomans
Pottering is key to keeping women healthy
Researchers at the University of Cali-
fornia San Diego said “all movement
counts” and encouraged older people to
get up out of their chairs.
In a study of 5,416 women with an av-
erage age of 79, published in the Journal
of the American Heart Association, par-
ticipants were asked to wear activity
trackers to assess how much time theyspent “up and about”. The scientists
found that women who spent at least
four hours a day on their feet had a 62
per cent lower chance of dying from
cardiovascular disease over six to seven
years compared with women who were
active for less than two hours a day.
A trial with male subjects would be
needed to test the results for men.Kaya Burgess Science Reporter
Pippa, with her mother Lizzie and one
of the doctors, has been allowed homeMARCIN ZAJAC/ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICHSpaced out A rock spire rises from the badlands in front of the Milky Way. It may
look like a distant planet, but in fact Alien Throne, by Marcin Zajac, was taken in
the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness in New Mexico. It won people’s choice in the Royal
Observatory Greenwich’s astronomy photographer of the year competition