A personalized chunk of metal has her back on slopes and trails

A custom, 3D-printed cobalt-chromium talus bone put Deanne Carlson on skis three months after surgery to repair a crumbling ankle. If the ankle is a lever, the talus is its fulcrum. It’s an oddly shaped lump onto which the bones of the lower leg drive the body into the bones of the foot. By late 2018, the fulcrum in Deanne “Dee Dee” Carlson’s left ankle had long since given in to the punishments its owner had imparted upon it, and it was dead and crumbling.