SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - New tools are helping doctors at one South Florida hospital treat life-threatening illnesses with pinpoint precision. Robots are lending a helping healing hand in the fight against cancer.
It’s the story of cutting edge technology, which meets talented doctors who are collaborating and a story of cancer survival that is all made possible by robotics.
It’s a new day and age when it comes to medicine and oncology.
HCA Florida Kendall Hospital is at the forefront in the fight against lung cancer. Doctors are using the latest robotic technology to save lives.
“It’s available throughout the nation. However, most people are not using it,” said Dr. Michael Sasevich. “If they are using it, they’re not using it in collaboration where the interventional pulmonologist and the surgeon are kind of working together in those patients to really bring the patient in, try to predict what the diagnosis is going to be, get the diagnosis and then treat.”
It is called the Robotic Endoluminal System that is designed to allow doctors to conduct minimally invasive biopsies deep within the lungs to sift out cancer.
The new cutting edge technology also lets surgeons reach small, barely accessible nodules that are within the lungs, which leads to early detection and better outcomes for patients like Alexandra Zamora.
Zamora said a few months ago she had shoulder pain while exercising.
Doctors soon discovered something else.
“The doctor recommended a CT for the chest, and then they said, ‘With the contraction there is no problem. The problem is that we found something in your lungs,'” Zamora said.
A biopsy that was later conducted tested positive for lung cancer.
“I was very shocked because I am very healthy. I eat very healthy. My lifestyle is pretty healthy,” Zamora said.
“If it looks suspicious for cancer, then we should take that out,” Sasevich said.
The path would then lead Zamora to Dr. Sasevich at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital.
He discovered Zamora had small lung nodules, which made her a prime candidate for the new procedure.
“Her tumor was a lung cancer. It was a stage 1 lung cancer,” Sasevich said.
Zamora underwent a long biopsy and partial lung removal under anesthesia in just one session.
“She’s basically cured because we got the tumor out, so it’s in early diagnosis, early pickup, early cure, early intervention, and statistically, somewhere between maybe three weeks to three months. It makes a big difference for the lung cancer patient,” Sasevich said.
Zamora had her surgery five weeks ago and is already on a speedy road to recovery.
“I thank them because this kind of surgery, I recovered so well,” Zamora said. “I mean this is amazing.”
Sasesvich told 7News that they have performed 10 of these procedures with that number growing as more patients are deemed good candidates for the surgery.
As for Zamora, she said she can’t wait to get back into the gym to lift some weights.