Lung Cancer Discovered by Accident

 

Jose Rosales went to a urologist after blood was discovered in his urine. Before performing a routine procedure, Jose’s doctor ordered a chest x-ray. To everyone’s surprise, the x-ray showed a mass on Jose’s right lung which turned out to be lung cancer. After seeing a pulmonologist, Jose was referred to thoracic surgeon Daniel Fortes, MD.

 

“The night before the surgery, Dr. Fortes called,” Jose recalls. “He told me he was going to use the da Vinci robot to perform my surgery.” Jose had heard about robotic surgery and was pleased to know that using it would provide Dr. Fortes with more manual dexterity than if he used a traditional surgical approach.

 

To use the da Vinci robot, the surgeon sits at a console in the operating room and sees the patient in a three dimensional view. Using his hands, the surgeon controls the robots four arms, which are used to perform the operation. Each arm of the robot enters the patient’s chest through a 1-2 cm incision, thereby eliminating the need to cut the breastbone or ribs, something done in traditional open surgery. This minimally invasive approach minimizes blood loss, pain and scaring, all of which facilitate a faster recover for the patient.

 

Jose’s surgery was so successful that he was able to leave the hospital the next day. “I was so pleased with Dr. Fortes and his office staff, as well as all of the nurses at the hospital. I had no complications and everything went very well.”