Florida Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Blog

Examining Surgical Robots | More Harm than Good? | Florida Medical Negligence Lawyer

What: medical neglgience | surgical robots | da Vinci
Where: Tampa, Florida | hospitals in U.S.
Who: surgeons | inadequate training

853 hospitals across the U.S. use a surgical robot manufactured by Intuitive Surgical, called the da Vinci.

Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, a small medical facility in New Hampshire is one of them. Unfortunately, not every surgery is a work of art. The surgical robot has been in several surgeries where serious injuries have occurred. One woman was injured so badly during a procedure that she needed four additional surgeries to repair the damage. Two other patients have suffered lacerated bladders during their robotic surgeries.

Wentworth Douglass has used the da Vinci about 300 times in a 4 year span. Larger medical facilities use the machine more frequently. The underlying question raised in a Wall Street Journal report  is, are doctors operating the da Vinci with enough experience to master the long learning curve?

Some surgeons with extensive experience in robotic surgery claim it takes at least 200 surgeries to become proficient with the unit.

Some surgeons at Wentworth, expressed concern. Dr. Paul Butler, a surgeon with 36 years of experience wrote a letter of opposition to the hospital's board of trustees. Another surgeon told the trustees a huge robotic device like the da Vinci wasn't needed at a hospital their size. Soon after leasing the machine, marketing efforts advertising the da Vinci ensued on radio, tv and in the newspaper.

What does a surgeon with more than 1,000 robotic procedures have to say about the da Vinci?  You can do a better job, but  with inadequate training, you can do more harm than good.

A Tampa, Florida man died during a robotic surgery after the surgeon cut two of his main blood vessels, accidentally. According to the lawsuit, the surgeon responsible had previously used the da Vinci on a cadaver, three kidney removals and another operation that left a man incontinent.

The chief executive at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center called it a medical arms race, saying "technologies are being adopted and becoming widespread based on the marketing prowess of equipment makers and suppliers, not necessarily on the public good."

When it was discovered his facility was losing business to competitors, he relented in buying the da Vinci despite the fact the medical center didn't have reliable data proving the robot would be better for patients.

For Intuitive Surgical the numbers add up.

Last year they posted profits of $233 million dollars on sales over $1 billion dollars.
Their stock has doubled in price to $361 dollars a share...in just the last year.