WLM
| health
da Vinci Si
in Douglas
®
tm
by Memorial Hospital of Converse County
photography courtesy Memorial Hospital of Converse County
M
emorial Hospital of Converse County has continued to bring advanced
medicine and hometown care to Converse County and the state of
Wyoming for more than 70 years. They’ve provided patients with
many firsts, including the use of thrombolytics for acute heart attacks,
a laparoscope for cholecystectomy, epidural pain management for all
laboring women, 3D Automated Breast Ultrasound for diagnostics and SPECT CT
imaging. In June 2013, another first was accomplished when they purchased the da
Vinci® Si™ Surgical System.
The da Vinci® Si™ in Douglas, more
commonly known as a “robot,” is the first
and only da Vinci® Si™ robotic surgical
system in the region. Being an extension of
the surgeon’s hands, this fine-tuned machine
offers finer, more precise movements of the
instruments inside the body, as well as three
dimensional, high definition views. The
surgeon, who is seated at a console near the
patient, operates via the robot, controlling
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the instruments inside the patient’s abdomen.
“The ‘robot’ is just an extension of our
hands and eyes,” said Dr. Brian Retherford,
OB/GYN. “The high definition camera
and advanced instrumentation