Baby Sophia happy and healthy after CITRA innovation09 July 2019Two years ago, East Metropolitan Health Service's Centre for Implant Technology and Retrieval Analysis (CITRA) played an instrumental role in saving the life of a new-born girl. Baby Sophia (pictured left with her siblings) was born with a rare, life threatening condition where her nasal cavity was completely blocked by fused bone. After six surgeries, Sophia is healthy, happy, and able to breathe normally. Moments after Sophia was born, her parents watched as hospital staff called a code blue, and began performing compressions on her chest. Sophia couldn't breathe, and she was placed on a ventilator while doctors searched for an answer. She was born with a complete blockage of the nose, a dangerous condition for infants, who don't breathe through their mouth during the first few months after birth. Sophia was small, even for a newborn, which significantly complicated the surgery required to save her life. The normal surgical instruments used to treat the condition were potentially too...