CHAPEL HILL -- As Gabby Gutierrez walked into the operating room at N.C. Children's Hospital, her eyes popped open wide when she recognized the robot that helped make her healthy again.
"This is what I remember before I went to sleep," she said as she moved toward the da Vinci Surgical System, a piece of robotic technology worth more than $1 million. "It kind of looks like an octopus."
Gabby, who is 15 and attends White Oak High School in Jacksonville, underwent a two-hour procedure Aug. 9 to remove a noncancerous tumor from the base of her tongue. In a standard operation, surgeons would have made an incision from Gabby's chin down into the neck, cutting the jawbone so they could reach the tumor.
But thanks to the robot system, which was equipped with a video camera, tiny clamps and a laser-cutting tool that was passed through her mouth, Gabby was out of the hospital in a few days.
Surgeons Adam Zanation and Carlton Zdanski (they both go by "Dr. Z") invited Gabby on Tuesday to try the machine they used during her surgery. Although the robot was designed for abdominal procedures, the FDA recently approved using the machine to remove oral tumors, Zdanski said. Gabby's surgery was the first time UNC surgeons had used it on a child.
The machine has three components: a high-definition video screen that shows the camera's viewpoint to everyone in the operating room, the robotic arms, and an operating console where the surgeon sits while looking into a viewfinder and manipulating hand controls.
Within minutes Tuesday, the surgeons had Gabby sitting at the console. After a bit of instruction, she began deftly moving her hands and fingers, which in turn controlled tiny clamps at the end of the robot's arms. Working on a set that the surgeons use for practice, Gabby used one clamp to pick up a tiny rubber band and the other to grab the band's opposite side.
Gabby's mother, Kathy Gutierrez, was suitably impressed, and all smiles.
"For all those parents who worry their kids are playing Nintendo too much, they can back off that, huh?" she said.
Zanation said Gabby was most likely born with the tumor. He used an iPad to show his young patient photos of her on the operating table, a short video taken during surgery, and a photo of the tumor - which was bigger than a half-dollar - after it was removed.
Gabby, an energetic and talkative girl, has recovered from the operation and plans to hit the soccer field today for the first time post-surgery. She seemed inspired by the visit with her life-saving robot.
"It was pretty freakin' spectacular. I definitely have a story to tell at school tomorrow."
