In 2017, Kris Depowski was petting her dog Murphy when she noticed a bump on the top of his head.
It was hard, about the size of a golf ball, and as she recalls, “it appeared out of nowhere.”
Soon after, Depowski got some scary news.
The bump was a rare form of cancer, unresponsive to either radiation or chemotherapy. And the bump itself was just the tip of the iceberg. The majority of Murphy’s tumour was growing inwards, into his sinuses and back towards his brain. Murphy’s only option was to have it surgically removed, along with nearly half of his skull — an incredibly invasive and risky procedure.
But there was hope, even though it sounded like science fiction: a 3D printer could save Murphy’s life.