Ancient children’s bones are the typical subjects of scans at Hugo Cardoso’s lab. Five-year-old girls, who are very much alive, are not.
In October, the archeology department at Simon Fraser University welcomed Nelson’s Zillah Shulman who arrived with her mother Milenia. The visit came after Cardoso received a unique request from a California surgeon that the lab to take images of Shulman’s left ear with its high-end 3D scanner.
Zillah was born with the rare congenital condition microtia that prevents ears from fully developing in utero. She wears a hearing aid on the right side of her head where her fully developed ear should be. The scans at SFU would be used to create a new prosthetic ear for her to live with.
Cardoso, SFU’s chair of the archeology department, usually works with human remains. His team scans bones to create permanent digital copies that can be studied and preserved while the originals deteriorate. But Cardoso’s lab is the only facility in B.C. to own the type of scanner needed to build Zillah’s ear, and he was happy to help.
“I didn’t really think much about it. I had the equipment. I work at a public university, I see the work that I do as public service. The work that I do, and the research that I do, is paid by Canadian tax dollars. It was kind of obvious to me that why not?”
Simon Fraser University research assistant Nicola Murray uses a hand-held scanner to take hundreds of images of Zillah Shulman’s left ear. The scans will be used to create a prosthetic that will be placed over Shulman’s right ear, which is underdeveloped due to microtia. Photo courtesy Simon Fraser University
Barak and Milenia Shulman have been working toward giving their daughter a new ear since she was one year old.
Zillah was born at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver with omphalocele, a condition that leads to infants being birthed with organs sticking out of their belly buttons. The family was prepared for this and knew in advance she would arrive with her liver partially outside the belly. What surprised them however was the tiny nub on the right side of Zillah’s head where her ear should have been.
Even though his daughter could live a healthy life without her right ear, Barak wants Zillah grow up without being bullied for her condition. He’s noticed she’s already thought of ways to defend herself if that happens.
“A child has so many things in regards to development and learning about social things that we didn’t want anything else to to make that more complex than it already is.”
In B.C. new ears for children with microtia are made using cartilage taken from ribs. The surgery, which was invented in 1958, is available at BC Children’s Hospital and covered by the Medical Services Plan for children 15 and younger.
But surgeons won’t perform on children until they are about 10 years old, and the Shulmans don’t want Zillah to wait another five years for the procedure.
The family opted instead for a surgery that isn’t available in Canada. Dr. Sheryl Lewin, a plastic surgeon in California, uses 3D scans of patient’s ears to create a nearly identical replacement for the side that is underdeveloped.
The scanner at SFU’s archeology department is the only one of its type in B.C. These images are some of the hundreds taken of Zillah Shulman’s left ear. Photo courtesy Simon Fraser University
The procedure is expensive — the Shulmans say it and related travel expenses will cost approximately $100,000 — but doesn’t require any cartilage taken from Zillah’s ribs. It won’t fix her hearing, but the ear is made bigger than it should be at Zillah’s age so she can grow into it and won’t need any replacements.
But first Lewin needed scans of Zillah’s ear. That led to a call with Cardoso, who uses the same handheld Artec Space Spider scanner that Lewin has.
When Zillah visited SFU’s Juvenile Osteology Group lab on Oct. 16, she sat in Milenia’s lap while research assistant Nicola Murray scanned hundreds of images of her left ear to send to Lewin. The process took a little over an hour.
“Nicola was very I think touched and felt really good to be involved in a project that has nothing to do with the work that she’s been doing with me, but that has a real visible and tangible and immediate impact on people’s lives,” said Cardoso.
Now that the scans are complete, the Shulmans will next travel to Torrence, Calif., for the surgery on Jan. 10. Afterward the family will stay near Lewin’s clinic for a month of post-op appointments.
Barak and Milenia are looking forward to Zillah being able to do little things people take for granted, like wearing sunglasses. They also think her confidence will improve, and a weight will be lifted off the family.
“It’s this massive hurdle that we’ve been watching on the horizon for years and years and years,” said Barak. “And now it’s around the corner and we’re about to take it and then put it behind us.”
They’ll also follow through on a promise made to Zillah for something she asked for but wasn’t possible without the surgery.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
