High-tech facility is first of its kind

FORT WORTH -- The possibility that a new technology available in California could save his daughter's life was all Dan Roberts needed to pack his family's bags and head west four years ago.

But now, children with brain tumors like his daughter's won't have to leave Tarrant County to get that same shot at a future.

"We want people to take their child home, just like we took ours," said Roberts, whose daughter Austin is now 13 and lives with her family in Aledo. "That's what inspired this."

The iMRI facility, the only one of its kind in the world, allows doctors to create amazingly accurate images of the brain not only as a diagnostic tool but also during surgery. The MRI's powerful magnet is suspended from tracks on the ceiling that allow it to glide in and out of the operating room.

With this equipment, a surgeon can stop surgery, scan the area and then continue with the operation until all the tumor has been removed. In the past, doctors had to wait for an MRI after surgery to determine whether the entire tumor was gone.

"The brain is a beautiful thing," he said. "But it is like operating on roast beef; it moves and shifts."

He said the machine will be especially beneficial to epilepsy patients, whose treatment is helped by accurate images of the brain.