High school juniors head to Baptist Health to see how surgeons dig into surgery using robots.
SAN ANTONIO — We hear about robots and A.I. more everyday, including in the medical field. With advancements in technology comes more teaching, and the need for students to learn the new tech – with the hope of saving more lives right here in the Alamo City.
The da Vinci 5 surgical robot is a $5 million robot that allows surgeons to feel the tissue of organs while sitting behind a console just a few feet away. Thursday, students at Brennan High School got to experience what it’s like to be that surgeon, and have someone’s life, in your robot hands.
“I think it’s really cool to see that you can get so close, working on procedures, and that a robot can help you so that way you don’t have to make big incisions,” Junior Sidney Gorbey, who wants to be a labor and delivery nurse said.
Sidney said trying out the technology is better than busting out the books.
“Because you actually get to feel and like you get the opportunities and doing it, so you know how something actually works, instead of just reading something in your brain and having to remember it from words on a page,” Sidney said.
“Having myself be in the machine and the chair holding the VR controllers, it was a really great opportunity,” Cadence, an 11th grade student added.
Students are learning how to use robotics for common surgeries like hernia repair, appendectomies, gall bladder removal, along with colonoscopies, and coronary artery bypass.
“I think it’s important to give them the opportunity just to see what, you know, what my interest in and how exciting the field of health and medicine can be,” Michael Kellery, a colorectal surgeon with Texas Oncology said.
“This could set a fire in them to become a surgeon in ten years and this could be the technology that they’re using, or in ten years, that they may be a part of the next emerging technology,” Shillen Goodlin, the Brennan HS health science teacher added.
Both Brennan High School and Baptist Health hopes this experience will get students excited and encouraged to pursue a career as a surgeon here in San Antonio.