By KARA L. RICHARDSON
Staff Writer
NEWARK -- A dozen Bernards
middle-schoolers spent Tuesday morning as medical students
at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
The students from William Annin Middle School joined about
50 other students from Christ the Teacher School in Fort
Lee, Weequahic High School and Malcolm X. Shabazz High School
in Newark to watch a live simulcast of surgeon Michael Pitter
perform a hysterectomy by robot.
This was Liberty Science Center's first "Live From ..." program
to feature a robotic procedure. Pitter spoke to the students
through a microphone during the operation. The students watched
it all, magnified 10 times, on a big screen.
"The robot can do the same things my hands can do. Twist
and turn. Twist and turn," Pitter said, his head pressed
into a computer terminal, his hands clutching the machine's
controls, telling the robotic arms to mimic his motions.
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center surgeons have performed
more than 1,500 robotic procedures since the hospital started
using the technology in 2003, the hospital's executive director,
Paul Mertz, said.
Mertz lives in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards. His
son, Jason, 14, was one of the William Annin Middle School
robotics team members on the field trip.
"They're (the students) quiet. They're not moving around.
It seems we have their attention," Paul Mertz said.
The students were there for the whole three-hour procedure
with the da Vinci surgical robot, which, he said, is less
invasive than traditional surgery.
Pitter explained to the students the 48-year-old female
patient's history with recurring fibroids. After having three
children and several treatments to treat the fibroids --
which looked like yellow blobs on the screen -- the woman
decided to have a hysterectomy.
Pitter answered questions during the robotic procedure because
he said performing the surgery is like second nature now.
He cauterized blood vessels, which turned white and then
brown, so he could safely remove the uterus.
One student took the microphone and asked: "Will those blood
vessels work again?"
Pitter explained that they will likely be sealed for good.
He moved on to sealing other blood vessels and snipping tissues.
Finally, Pitter pushed the uterus out of the body, while
someone pulled the organ through the vaginal wall.
"Woohoo," Pitter exclaimed, setting off laughter in the
otherwise serious atmosphere.
One by one, the students had an opportunity handling another
surgical robot, taking turns picking up a dime with the clamps.
"Show me heads. Show me tails," said Sue Belluardo, a sales
representative for Intuitive Surgical, which markets the
robot. She guided the students through the mechanical procedure
that included placing tiny rubber bands on cones. "Great
job. What do you think?"
"Awesome," Brian Moore, 14, said.
"We're hearing that word a lot today," Belluardo said. "It
takes me double the time to show surgeons how to do it."
Kara L. Richardson can be reached at (908) 707-3186
or krichard@c-n.com.
Publication: The Courier News
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