How a 3-D Printer Healed a Turtle

Release day for Augie

Monday morning is a time most people do not look forward to. The first Monday of this month, however, was a different story. We got to spend it on the beach in Nags Head, releasing three green sea turtles back into the Atlantic. Two turtles had recovered from cold-stunning, and the third, named Augie, came to us in July 2013 with fractures to both front flippers. Augie's road to recovery at the Aquarium lasted two years, and involved collaboration between multiple organizations and, surprisingly, a 3-D printer. 

Augie's splint 

One Tech-y Turtle

Augie's right front flipper was in the worst shape due to an open fracture, and it needed help healing. Our veterinarians decided to have a plastic splint developed, which would reduce motion and encourage the flipper to mend. This is where the 3-D printer comes into play. A CT scan of the flipper was used by Austin Isaacs and Kathryn McCullough, students in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at NC State, to create a custom splint, produced on a 3-D printer. McCullough designed the model of Augie's flipper, which was printed with two materials, rigid for bones and flexible for soft tissues. Isaacs created the splint around the example, printed from rigid nylon in a honeycomb pattern to reduce weight.

Once secured to Augie's flipper, the splint remained in place for 40 days. After this time, the bones were stable enough to continue healing on their own. Augie was then housed in an exhibit tank, larger than ones in our rehab center, in order for the flipper to become conditioned. Augie was able to eat well, and swim, dive, and navigate around the exhibit as s/he became stronger.

Time to Go

Earlier this summer, another CT scan revealed the fractures were fusing together nicely. The flippers did not appear perfect, but the bones were growing appropriately with the size of the turtle. Before release, Augie was moved behind the scenes, away from the public, in order to become desensitized to human exposure. When feeding Augie, staff kept out of the turtle's view s/he would no longer associate humans to receiving food.

Augie was ready to go. On release day, the large crowd cheered as a volunteer from the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles took Augie down the beach towards the ocean. The green sea turtle swam out into the Atlantic, another success story from our STAR Center. Many collaborating organizations made this possible, and our hope is that this first-of-its-kind project will help in further developing similar treatments for other injured animals.