MY RELATIONSHIP TO DA VINCI SURGERY: Patient

MY CONDITION: Prostate Cancer

TYPE OF PROCEDURE I HAD: da Vinci Radical prostatectomy

DATE OF PROCEDURE: Jun 20, 2006

MY SURGEON: Dr. Arieh Shalhav

HOSPITAL WHERE MY PROCEDURE WAS PERFORMED: University of Chicago Medical Center

OTHER TREATMENTS I CONSIDERED BEFORE DA VINCI SURGERY:
Needle biopsies

THE BIGGEST CONCERNS I HAD ABOUT TREATMENT:
The possible spread of cancer

WHY I CHOSE DA VINCI SURGERY:
Embracement of technology

HOW LONG I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL:
24 hours

MY PAIN AND/OR DISCOMFORT LEVEL:
None

WHEN I RETURNED TO NORMAL ACTIVITIES:
Was mowing my lawn 48 hours after surgery

ABOUT MY SURGEON AND/OR FACILITY STAFF:
Excellent

I WOULD RECOMMEND DA VINCI SURGERY TO MY FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS!

I am the "poster child," so to speak, for the University of Chicago Hospital Medical Center and robotic surgery. In the past 2 1/2 years at the University of Chicago Hospitals, I have undergone, via the da Vinci robot, a prostatectomy and a double coronary bypass. I truly feel it is a real shame that any patient who has undergone what I refer to as 'conventional surgery' did not have the opportunity that I have had.
I underwent a robotic-assisted laparoscopic bilateral total pelvic lymphadenectomy and radical prostatectomy by Dr. Arieh Shalhav at Chicago Hospital on February 20, 2007. Dr Shalhav is fantastic. I suspect he has performed hundreds of robotic surgeries. Just tells you what he does, what he thinks you need, what you can expect then wants an answer - takes about 15 minutes. I had excellent results, was discharged in 24 hours, walked out, went home and mowed the lawn the following day.
Then, on February 1, 2008, I underwent a robotic coronary artery bypass graft (double bypass) performed by Dr. Sudhir Srivastava, with excellent results, walked out on February 5, 2008. Upon being discharged, I went home and threw the ball around in the yard with my grandson in short order.
Medicare paid for my surgeries, hospital stays and everything else, at the same rate Medicare pays for conventional surgery. I can't even see the scars anymore from the first surgery.
I have four tiny holes about the size of a dime or so from the double bypass. When someone around here is going to have similar surgery, I can tell them about this miracle, and they think I'm nuts. So, in the case of coronary bypass surgery, they go ahead, get cut open, have their breast cracked like a chicken, get stitched back together, then lay around for a month, sometimes even longer, going thru one heck of a lot of pain.
I was at (another hospital) and was told I had to have (coronary) bypass surgery. They brought in a surgeon who told me how easy it was: he'd cut me from my Adam's apple to my pelvis, break my breast plate like a chicken's, perform the bypass, close me up, and I'd probably be laid up from at least month, possibly longer. Then he left, and I thought, "The hell with this, there has to be a better way." So I drove 2 hours home, got on the computer and found out my old robot also performed bypass surgery. I called University of Chicago the next morning, made an appointment for January 24, set-up (surgery with) the robot for February 1, and never looked back.
And today, I am not like an old cripple or something. I am retired; however I am only 59 years old, work out 5 days a week, I suspect as fit as most. The only problem is that people do not believe me. It's like a miracle, but no one believes me when I describe my surgeries and my rapid recoveries. I provide the details, where my surgery had been performed, the physicians, the procedures, the results; no one thinks I am telling the truth.
I could go on and on, but as I first said, it is a real shame, in fact it is almost intolerable, that if hospitals do not have da Vinci capabilities, their patients are not referred to hospitals that do. I had to do my own research and then self-admit myself to the University of Chicago. I lucked out. Most people are just told at a local hospital, "Sorry, you have to have surgery, and we'll set you up for such and such day," and they don't know any better until they run into someone like me; then they really get ticked off, if I can make them believe me.