Aug 11, 2008 9:56 pm US/Mountain
Moviemaking Technology Helps Children's Patient
Written by CBS4 special projects producer Vicki Hildner, vhildner@cbs.com
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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The Children's Hospital
CBS
One hundred years ago this summer, The Children's Hospital was born under tents with 50 patients and 6 medical staff. Today, the new Children's Hospital occupies 1.5 million square feet on 48 acres. But through the years, what has not changed is Children's commitment to cutting edge diagnosis and care.
CBS4 is looking at ways The Children's Hospital has made history for the past century. But before going back 100 years, CBS4's Karen Leigh will start in the present with a look at how Children's is setting the gold standard for care of the future.
When watching Monica Ogrodnik plant her foot on a soccer ball, one would never guess that they are watching a medical marvel in action. After all, the pre-teen started life with a difficult birth and with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
"We didn't know if she would ever talk or walk or if she would spend life in a wheelchair," remembered Monica's mother, Tracy.
In many ways, Monica developed normally, except for her ability to walk. It was particularly obvious to Tracy and Scott, Monica's parents, because they could watch Monica's twin sister, Julia. Compared to her sister, it was obvious that Monica's legs were not working in synch. Tracy puts it simply: "She tripped over her own feet."
Then Monica's parents brought her to the The Children's Hospital gait lab and Dr. Frank Chang. Chang is only being semi-facetious when he laughs and calls this lab "the current state of the art in the entire universe."
In the lab Chang used software that translated all of Monica's movements into data he could use to help her. With sensors attached to all parts of her body, Monica walked down a runway worthy of a high fashion model while dozens of cameras recorded her every move.
The computer translated that information into video game-style figures. A graph then transferred that information into data telling Chang exactly which of Monica's leg muscles was firing in a coordinated fashion and which was out of sync.
The software has become incredibly sophisticated in recent years, not necessarily because of its medical benefits, but because it's the same kind of technology necessary for video animations in movies and for video games.
Dr. Chang started studying Monica not long after she passed through her toddler phase. Five years ago, he proposed to her parents that she have eight different orthopedic surgeries on her legs in one major operation.
Just the memory of that complex and lengthy surgery still brings tears to Tracy's eyes.
"I can't even think about it now," she said. "But you have to do it. It was her only chance to have the normal life that she wanted."
After the surgery, Monica had to learn to walk all over again. For one year, her parents say, the family focused on one goal -- helping Monica walk.
But at the end of that year, they sat back and watched with amazement as their little girl who once tripped over her own feet gave up her walker and sailed through the halls at school. They still laugh at the memory of the school principal who one day realized that, without her walker, he didn't even recognize Monica.
"It was like she got a brand new pair of legs," Scott said.
Today, Monica continues to return to The Children's Hospital for check-ups. But all she really cares about is playing soccer. She just made a competitive soccer team and she also loves to play at school.
"I don't get trampled by the boys any more," she laughed.
One hundred years after The Children's Hospital started humbly under tents, a man of medicine has taken computer software from the movies in order to give a little girl who was stumbling through life a chance to score a goal.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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