The New Faces of daVinci

Since the establishment of the daVinci® Surgical Robotics Program at SGMC last spring, SGMC’s affiliated OB/GYNs have received high praise from patients whose lives have been dramatically improved through use of this new technology.

Patient outcomes have demonstrated that the enhanced visualization, smaller incisions and greater precision daVinci allows is helping women recover faster and get back to life sooner.

Here’s what our patients say about robotic assisted surgery.

Cheryl Gibson suffered from extreme endometriosis for years.

In 1997, she underwent a laparoscopy, which was the standard treatment for endometriosis at the time, but instead of the surgery making her better, her condition actually worsened over the next few years.

“The pain was horrible,” Gibson explains.  “I spent two-to-three days each month confined to bed taking pain killers.”

When Cheryl developed polyps last year, Dr. Alex Culbreth recommended that Cheryl undergo a complete hysterectomy.  Initially, Dr. Culbreth wanted to do an open procedure on Cheryl, but a personal decision to postpone the surgery afforded Cheryl the benefit of using the new daVinci technology at SGMC.

“I was not looking forward to a six-inch surgical incision or eight-weeks of convalescence. When Dr. Culbreth told me about the robot, I was skeptical.  But I’m a believer, now,” she says. “I had a total hysterectomy on Thursday, and could have walked out of the hospital on Friday if the nurse would have let me. I never had a tinge of pain.” 

Back at home, Cheryl had to remind herself to take it easy because there was no pain.  The only discomfort she had a slight backache on the third day following surgery. Two weeks later, Cheryl was doing routine housework and driving herself 60 miles to the dentist.

For Cheryl, daVinci surgery was the answer to her prayers. 
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Kerri Slaughter had daVinci robotic-assisted hysterectomy after suffering from menorrhagia (heavy bleeding) for years.

“After having my children, it seemed to get worse,” Kerri explains. “I kept a journal tracking my periods and I realized I was averaging 15 days a month with heavy bleeding. I tried various things, but nothing worked. Hysterectomy was my last resort.”

Kerri admits that in the beginning, she was “hesitant” about robotic assisted surgery. She says, “Looking back, I know that my anxiety was due to my lack of knowledge. As I did research and had an in-depth conversation with Dr. Joe Clifton, I soon realized that this was just another medical tool. It would give me the results of a hysterectomy with a significantly smoother recovery.”

Today, Kerri says she is a cheerleader for this procedure. “A friend had an open incision hysterectomy five days prior to my procedure and the differences are amazing,” she explains. “My friend had tremendous pain and spent three days in the hospital. I was up and walking within a few hours and actually went home 12 hours after my surgery.”

Kerri took pain medicine for four days as a preventative, but was mainly sore following the procedure. She was driving after a week and returned to work part-time after two weeks. “You literally have to remind your brain that you had a major surgery,” she says.

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Having large fibroid tumors that caused extreme bleeding, painful cramps, back pain and migraine headaches, Caterina M. Orr opted to undergo daVinci robotic assisted hysterectomy in May.

Today, Caterina says she would recommend daVinci surgery to all women with similar problems.

“What sold me on the procedure was the education I received from Dr. Roy Swindle. I didn’t want a big incision. I wanted to have less pain and a faster recovery,” Caterina explains.

With four members of her family having undergone traditional open hysterectomies, Caterina says she knows these women had lots of pain with their surgeries. She also remembers the notorious ‘pain pillow’ with her mother and sisters. Whenever her mother or sisters laughed or coughed, they had to have a pillow to press against their abdomen to mask the pain.

“With the daVinci procedure, I was never in need of a pillow,” she says.

Caterina believes that the daVinci procedure allowed her to have the safest and least invasive procedure for this type of surgery. “Because my uterus was so big, it was difficult to remove; however, the robot provided Dr. Swindle the tools to remove it without having to make a 6-inch open incision to get it out.”

Three weeks after surgery, Caterina was out running errands.  By the fourth week, she was able to attend a power-packed education conference which required lots of walking.

For all of these women, their testimonies speak loud and clear.  With daVinci robotic assisted surgeries, patients experience benefits that far outweigh the skepticism of using a new technology.  For more information, speak with one of SGMC’s robotic surgery team members: Dr. Jerthitia Taylor Grate; Dr. Roy Swindle; Dr. Bo Woodward; Dr. Sam Taylor; Dr. Joe Clifton, Dr. Alex Culbreth and Dr. David Saint.