Kids learn basics of robotic surgical system

HARLINGEN — Liana Medellin had just taken her own Fantastic Voyage and loved it.

“It was really cool!” said Liana, 15, who’d just stood up from the console of the de Vinci Surgical System.

She’d been looking through the camera of the surgical robot while maneuvering its arms to perform an operation.

“I can see how it could help when it comes to getting the full view of the body so you can’t make a mistake,” said Liana, a ninth grader at IDEA Academy.

She was one of many students yesterday who viewed demonstrations of the robot system at Valley Baptist Medical Center and explored it for themselves.

“It aids surgeons in performing surgery,” said Tyler Boob, area sales director for Intuitive Surgical, which produces the equipment.

“It performs surgery in a minimally-invasive environment,” Boob said. “The surgeon sits at this console and controls that arm.”

He gestured toward several arms poking through small holes in a glass casing. From the console, he moved the arms around a surgical model. They moved with microscopic precision, much less intimidating than a surgeon’s hands.

“It’s vital,” Boob said. “Open surgery has a lot of complications with it.”

The equipment has been in existence since 1999, but the new model on display became available in 2014.

“The surgeons use this to assist them in all soft tissue surgery throughout the torso such as a prostatectomy or a hysterectomy,” he said.

The machine isn’t used for heart surgery.

The kids who attended the demonstration were impressed.

“I just think it’s crazy how technology can do so much,” said Mariana Ortega, 16. “I think it’s super amazing. It’s something totally different.”

Matt Lynch, marketing manager for Valley Baptist Health System, was glad the kids could experience the robot demo.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to expose our community to the things we have here at Valley Baptist,” Lynch said. “It is so important for them to come in and see just what we’ve got to take care of them.”