How we hacked my body back to life

by Jason Laing, 3D Printing Pioneer | TEDx Johannesburg

Award-winning Jason Laing’s€™ pioneering efforts in the jewellery industry have helped to make 3D printing systems in the trade more user-friendly and commercially viable. Since then, he has been instrumental in introducing, into the South African medical field, CAD and 3D printing processes for guided surgical devices, and implantable and external prosthetics. Jason has further expanded his specialist scope into areas such as bio-scaffolding and product development.

For Jason, cycling is an all-consuming passion. Be it road cycling, mountain biking, tadem or track cycling – Jason specialised in all of them. Before his 11th birthday he had completed his first Argus Cycle Tour and by the time he was 21 he had done 10 – one of only a handful of people who have ever completed 10 Argus Cycle Tours before the age of 21; a record that still stands today.

It was around this time that he realised that he would have to have some kind of a career besides riding. He ended up becoming a jeweller by doing an apprenticeship.

In March 2016, Jason was pushing himself in racing beyond limitations. That was when he had a freak accident while track cycle training at high speed. He had a seizure at close to 70kms an hour and hit the deck head-on. It happened in a split second, where his world, his passion, his life, would literally come to an end.

Jason suffered multiple brain injuries – scarring, bleeding and tearing of the brain. When the paramedics arrived at the track they had to work on Jason for over an hour. They had to resuscitate him on the scene. He red-lined again at the hospital and the doctors had to bring him back to life again.

He sustained over 32 points of injury ranging from breakages, dislocations and torn muscles, to major internal bleeding. Doctors pretty much believed that he wouldn’t make it through 24 hours and if he did, he would be brain damaged for the rest of his life.

With his background in the jewellery industry which took him to over 67 countries around the world, Jason had been exposed to the latest technologies, including 3d printing.

Watch his inspiring TEDx Talk about his road to recovery using modern technology, including 3D printing…