DEVELOPING Defence rests without Donald Trump taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial
Donald Trump's lawyers rested their defence Tuesday without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial.
An Ontario teen is among the first patients in the country to have a rare bone cancer surgically removed by doctors who used a new Canadian-designed virtual reality system. The system allows them to "walk" within a patient's body as they plan out complex surgeries.
"Every time we go into the headset, we're literally inside the patient, looking directly at the tumour, and it's quite exciting," said Dr. Kawan Rakhra, a radiologist and part of the orthopedic surgical team at the Ottawa Hospital.
Patient Emeric Leblanc was 14 when pain in one of his legs led to a diagnosis of Ewing sarcoma. It's a rare cancer that had engulfed much of his left hip bone.
The Gatineau, Que., teen first had to endure 62 days of chemotherapy and 25 radiation treatments to shrink the tumour, before undergoing surgery to remove it by amputating part of the pelvis.
Dr. Joel Werier, who led the surgical team at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Program, faced a daunting challenge: remove the 12-centimetre tumour, while leaving enough pelvic bone to support Emeric's hip joint. Otherwise, Emeric would lose his entire left leg.
"We wanted to understand where was the tumour in relation to his hip joint, and could we save the hip joint? Could we do that safely?" said Werier.
"I think it's a very powerful tool," he added. "Didn't I wish I had this 15 years ago...?"
Wearing head goggles and holding a hand device, just like gamers, he and Rakhra recreated the pre-surgical journey into Emeric's pelvic area for CTV News.
"I'm just going to show you right into the tumour," said Rakhra, as the two doctors stood side by side in a hospital office. They measured the tumour and moved all around it, using their hands to stretch the images as they checked out arteries and organs they needed to avoid injury during the long and complex surgery.
"This does tell me that we do have enough bone to work with. At the same time...doing a safe cancer operation," said Warier.
The morning of the surgery, doctors let Emeric and his mother, Helene Lachance, see inside his body.
"It was very cool with the headset, and you could move it around, check it from every angle, and you could see in red there was an important blood vessel and a bunch of details on it," said Emeric.
His mother said the images were both impressive and comforting.
"It made me feel really reassured that Emeric was supported by the best in the medical field ....and the best technology," she said.
The idea began in 2016, after a medical physicist at the Ottawa Hospital, Justin Sutherland, played a few VR games. While immersed in the world of car racing and imaginary battles, his thoughts turned to adapting headsets and images to the field of medicine.
From his work developing radiation plans for cancer patients, Sutherland knew that medical teams relied on Computed Tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs) to map out how they would remove tumours. But the scans are two-dimensional and involve hundreds of slices of the body. It takes time and much training to mentally translate and visualize.
The idea led to the creation of the Ottawa start-up Realize Medical, as Sutherland and colleagues applied for a patent through the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.
Researchers developed programs that take scans and develop 3D images of areas requested by the surgeons, with all the structures and tissue that can be included coloured, and programed in a way where they can be virtually extracted, so those using the programs for training can focus on the exact area of the operation.
And all images are moved by the doctors' hands.
"The whole thing is natural and you feel as if you're really interacting with this data in a way that's not possible in the real world," said Sutherland.
"It never gets old to have a doctor try on the headset see what's available and then have their eyes light up," said Sutherland, now the company CEO.
There are a growing number of firms worldwide vying for a spot in medical training using virtual reality, with increasing interest in immersive planning systems like Elucis.
The question now is does this advanced virtual preparation make a difference to how well patients do?
"Preliminary data suggests to us (surgeons are) feeling a lot more confident," said Rakhra."That's leading to shorter operating times, which in turn should lead to better outcomes for the patient," he said.
Studies continue in Canada for use in planning cancer surgeries, as well as for use in heart, lung and even transplant operations.
"I think we've looked at it critically from a data point of view, from 13 or 14 patients. I think that's where we are right now, and we have three or four scheduled on the docket to do in the next few months," said Warier.
In January 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration green-lit the Canadian system for use south of the border, where it is now being used in 18 hospitals, said Sutherland.
Remote consultations with doctors anywhere in the world are an added feature.
"We've connected as far as Australia, the U.K., Saudi Arabia... and put them in the same environment as if they're there, face-to-face interaction," according to Sutherland.
Emeric's surgery stands among the team’s successes. It took 14 long hours but his leg was spared, and after several months of physiotherapy, the teen is now healthy and back at school.
The only reminders are the hole where his left hip bone sat, and the fact that his left leg is now slightly shorter as a result. For that, he uses lifts in his shoes.
"I still do whatever I want. And I don't let that stop me." Emeric told CTV News.
And he says he's happy he aided Ottawa scientists testing out a new way of seeing patients, inside and out.
"I always wanted to help," he said.
Donald Trump's lawyers rested their defence Tuesday without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial.
One passenger was killed and 30 injured after a Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI flight from London hit severe turbulence en route on Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.
Donald Trump's reelection campaign called 'The Apprentice,' a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, 'pure fiction' and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump.
Nestle NESN.S will market a new, US$5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
If you've been to a party lately and haven't seen someone drinking a BORG, you're likely not partying with college students.
As the month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned stores wears on, small independent food retailers and alternative grocery options say they're seeing a boost in traffic and sales.
Prince Harry can't expand his privacy lawsuit against The Sun tabloid publisher to include allegations that Rupert Murdoch and some other executives were part of an effort to conceal and destroy evidence of unlawful information gathering, a London judge ruled Tuesday.
For those who go to their local libraries often, they know there’s much more to their library than just borrowing books. Local libraries in Atlantic Canada are now renting out a broader range of items for people.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.