RIVERVIEW, Fla. — With a splish and a splash, a group of ladies in Riverview get an early morning workout in while at their community pool.
They call themselves the “Mermaizing Mermaids,” meeting four times a week in their liquid gym.
Jennifer Josephi is 70 and loves it. But a cancer diagnosis threatened to take class time and her independence away.
“I couldn’t plan anything in the future because I didn’t know if I had a future,” said Josephi.
She has had cancer three times in her life, having already survived liver and lung cancer.
Last year, a scan at Moffitt Cancer Center showed neuroendocrine cancer.
She had surgery to remove the cancer, which was successful, but it left her with a complication. She now had a leak in her lung, making it hard to breathe and walk.
“It was bad. I mean, it was really it was scary,” said Josephi.
To fix something like this, interventional pulmonologist Dr. Eduardo Celis says a stent is usually placed.
But because of Josephi’s surgery and anatomy, a regular stent would not work for her.
Instead of leaving her to a life of discomfort, Celis came up with an idea.
“We customize this for the patient,” said Celis, pointing to a stent in his hand.
He took her CT scans and had the company VisionAir Solutions 3D print a customized stent for Josephi.
“We took this arm out, and then we made just this part for her,” said Celis.
This was the first customized 3D lung stent Moffitt Cancer Center has done, but it likely won’t be the last.
“Custom fit is always, always good,” said Celis. “I think it is going to change a lot of things. And you can see it not only in my field, but across the board in different fields. Amazing 3D or personalized medicine is kind of the go-to.”
Celis said this will not be the day-to-day, because for the most part, regular stents work very well for most. But it is a great option to have for future patients.
“You can see such a small thing, and it can make such a big impact on somebody’s life,” said Celis.
The stent was in her chest for five months, and it healed her lungs.
“You can see the lung goes all the way down to the chest wall,” said Celis, showing a before-and-after comparison of Josephi’s lung.
“I can breathe like normal. That’s the first thing I tested. Can I hold my breath? Yes,” Josephi said, smiling.
Breathe again, walk again, and more importantly, she can now swim again.
“As soon as they said, ‘You can go in the pool,’ I was in that pool,” she said.
Josephi is cancer free now, though she will continue to have check-ups at Moffitt Cancer Center.
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