At least two patients at the Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, NH were injured by the da Vinci surgical robot, a $1.4 million machine named after Leonardo da Vinci, prompting an investigation of Intuitive Surgical Inc, the company that markets the robot, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the WSJ, the da Vinci robot is used in 853 US hospitals to perform minimally invasive surgery, though some experts think that in inexperienced hands, the robot might do more harm than good.
The da Vinci robot is a massive machine that came on the market in 2000. It has been employed in a range of surgeries, from removing cancerous prostates to more complex heart surgeries.
The Wentworth-Douglass hospital has used the da Vinci robot about 300 times in the last four years, and the WSJ reports that there is no evidence to suggest the there were caused by technical malfunctions. Surgeons who use the da Vinci on regular basis say the robot is technologically sound. However, it requires considerable practice, and according to some experts, the usage of 300 times at the small Dover hospital was not enough to master it.
The WSJ reports that surgeon inexperience could be the problem. At least two surgeons at Wentworth-Douglass told the board of trustees that they did not want to use the da Vinci since it was not need at a hospital of its size. One of them, Dr. Robert Lambert, told the WSJ that pressure to use da Vinci was one of the reasons he eventually left the hospital.
Other Wentworth-Douglass medical staff members were critical of the training they received with the device, saying it was insufficient. Also, four urologists resisted using the robot without more training, and three of them eventually left the hospital, the WSJ reports.
According to the WSJ report, some surgeons have questioned the way da Vinci is marketed. Intuitive Surgical promotes the robot as a way for hospitals to increase revenues and market share. However, one study published in the Journal of Urology reports that a hospital needs to do at least 520 surgeries a year with the robot to bring its costs in line with traditional surgery.
The injuries at Wentworth-Douglass include one patient who was so badly injured that she needed four additional procedures to repair the damage. Also, in earlier robotic surgeries, two patients suffered lacerated bladders.
The personal injury attorneys at The Kiley Law Group are dedicated to helping the victims of:
- Car, motorcycle, truck, van or bus accident
- Single vehicle accidents such as SUV or 15-passenger van rollovers
- Pedestrian accidents such as a hit and run
- Defective products such as ineffective airbags or seatbelts, prescription drugs with unpublicized side-effects, or hazardous children’s toys
- Child injury and child abuse such as negligence
- Birth injuries such as trauma during labor or cerebral palsy.
We Serve Clients Across the State of Massachusetts & Salem, NH
The firm’s headquarters are in Andover, MA and serves the following cities in Massachusetts: Boston, Danvers, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Middleton, Reading, and Salem, MA and Salem, New Hampshire.
Massachusetts personal injury lawyer, Thomas M. Kiley, is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and is a respected member of the American Association for Justice and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys.
