On this visit (and hopefully on most of the ones going forward), the majority of my time was spent observing surgery in the operating room! As the best way to learn about robotic surgery is to witness it first hand, I feel that I learned so much about the da Vinci and how it functions during an actual operation. Having the opportunity to watch it in action from only a few feet away as it performed life-changing surgery was everything I dreamed it would be and more.
After meeting Dr. Heffernan in the Medical City Plano lobby at 7:30am, we headed straight to the OR wing to get started on his first case. This particular patient had begun showing precancerous signs in her uterus, which warranted a hysterectomy using the da Vinci. After getting equipped with a surgical mask and hairnet, I was ready to enter the OR. I’d only been inside of an OR on one other occasion, and it certainly wasn’t equipped with a da Vinci robot.
