My 3D-printed skull

Medics fix huge hole in model’s head with hi-tech titanium plate

A MODEL who was left with a huge hole in her head after an accident has had her skull rebuilt using a 3D printer.

Francesca Burr, 28, suffered fractures in five different places when a violent seizure caused her to fall down a flight of stairs.

She was in an induced coma for nearly a month as surgeons operated to remove broken bone fragments from her brain.

Experts then created a titanium plate with a 3D printer to cover the gap in Francesca’s head. She is now on the road to recovery 10 months on from the fall.

Francesca said: “I won’t ever be the same, because my brain has had to change and is held together with metal pins, but I am so lucky I have such incredible friends and family.

“I was in a coma for nearly a month and my brother said I looked like Frankenstein...”

The primary school teacher and model began suffering seizures last summer. After the fall, in November, she was found lying on the floor with blood coming out of her “eyes, ears and nose”.

She was treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, and is now recovering at her mum’s home in Halstead, in Essex.

Francesca said: “Eventually, when I’m stronger, I will go back to work. I’m a stubborn cow... I’ve also just started seeing someone. I actually met him in hospital.”