{"id":34239,"date":"2026-06-05T11:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=34239"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:41:11","slug":"purdue-equine-hospital-team-comes-to-aid-of-horse-injured-in-severe-storm-in-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/purdue-equine-hospital-team-comes-to-aid-of-horse-injured-in-severe-storm-in-michigan.php","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Equine Hospital Team Comes to Aid of Horse Injured in Severe Storm in Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For a horse named Sassy, Purdue Veterinary Medicine\u2019s Brunner Equine Hospital proved to be the right place at the right time to recover from a scary accident that happened during a severe storm in Michigan two weeks ago.  According to Dr. Danielle Cucuzella, Purdue visiting assistant professor of large animal surgery, the Quarter Horse named Sassy was seriously hurt during near 100 mile-per-hour winds where she lived in Saint Louis, Michigan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDue to severe trauma to Sassy\u2019s face, skull, sinuses, and left orbit [eye socket] after being struck by a fallen tree limb during the storm, Sassy was seen by her local veterinarian and then referred and hospitalized for emergency stabilization by our colleagues at Michigan State University,\u201d Dr. Cucuzella explained. Initial evaluation and x-rays showed severe fractures to multiple bones of her skull and face. \u201cAdditional imaging in the form of CT was recommended in order to more precisely map the damage,\u201d Dr. Cucuzella said. Once she was stable enough for travel, Sassy was sent to Purdue where a standing CT of her head and neck were performed in the Brunner Equine Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The Purdue University Veterinary Hospital Equine Surgery team looks on as Sassy takes her first steps outdoors wearing her protective mask Friday, May 29.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis scan unfortunately showed that there was much more extensive damage deeper in the skull, including multiple fractures of her orbit that were in danger of damaging her globe [eyeball] or optic nerve at any time if displaced,\u201d Dr. Cucuzella shared. \u201cThis would result in Sassy losing her vision or her eye completely. For that reason, it was decided to pursue additional protective measures. Sassy\u2019s CT was used to build her a 3D-printed reconstruction external fixation helmet to protect her eye and other important structures during healing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, the large animal surgery, diagnostic imaging, and ophthalmology services worked with the help of expertise from Purdue\u2019s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics to 3D print Sassy a protective helmet that would hopefully prevent her fractured bones from dislodging and causing further complications, and allowing them time to heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Sassy with her Equine Surgery Team in the Brunner Equine Hospital (l-r): Emma Zaicow, third-year veterinary student; Sarah Larsen, veterinary assistant, large animal; Dr. Danielle Cucuzella, visiting assistant professor of large animal surgery; Micah Black, veterinary assistant, large animal surgery; Dr. Alexandra Usimaki, large animal surgery resident; Dr. Michelle Tucker, assistant professor of large animal surgery; and Ece Inanc, graduate research assistant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The helmet has the appearance of a black mask that covers just the side of her face that was injured, giving her a Phantom of the Opera-esque look, and she wore it without objection as she recovered at the Equine Hospital.  With the recovery progressing smoothly, Sassy was released from the hospital Monday, June 1, to go home with her owner to continue recovering there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe has a great prognosis for survival, and with the addition of our 3D printed helmet, she also now has a good prognosis for maintaining her vision and hopefully can soon get back to the young child who rides her,\u201d Dr. Cucuzella said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sassy\u2019s treatment proved to be a total team effort that even linked veterinary medicine and engineering, with the guidance of Dr. Michelle Tucker, assistant professor of large animal surgery, who also holds an engineering degree and works with 3D printing as part of her research. And just in time to help with Sassy\u2019s care and treatment, she added a new research team member, Ece Inanc, a graduate research assistant currently working toward earning a PhD from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Purdue\u2019s College of Engineering.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Dr. Michelle Tucker, engineer and board-certified large animal surgeon, and her graduate research assistant, Ece Inanc, show one of the 3-D printed masks they prepared for Sassy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A big thank you to PVM\u2019s Equine Surgery team for providing excellent care and treatment of Sassy, who hopefully will once again be able to carry her young rider at her home in Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a horse named Sassy, Purdue Veterinary Medicine\u2019s Brunner Equine Hospital proved to be the right place at the right time to recover from a scary accident that happened during a severe storm in Michigan two weeks ago. According to Dr. Danielle Cucuzella, Purdue visiting assistant professor of large animal surgery, the Quarter Horse named Sassy was seriously hurt during near 100 mile-per-hour winds where she lived in Saint Louis, Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,31,29,27],"tags":[1432,25],"class_list":["post-34239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-hospitals","category-our-people","category-services","tag-equine-hospital","tag-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34299,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34239\/revisions\/34299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}