By Chris Wilson

When it comes to operations and surgery, just about anybody can be a little apprehensive. But, when a giant robot is performing the procedure, invasive surgery can be that much more intimidating.

West Gainesville resident Jeff Magda had been waiting for a kidney transplant for a couple of years. When both Jeff’s parents and in-laws were unable to donate their kidneys, his wife Christina found out that she had a match.

“I knew if I was a match, there was no question,” says Christina. “I had no hesitation.”

(Photo above: Christina & Jeff Magda)

Jeff says he had reservations about his wife donating her kidney. “In my heart, I didn’t want her to do it,”?he says. “She just wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

The couple had been married in June 2005 and had found out that Jeff needed a kidney transplant in October of that same year. “I?wouldn’t wish dialysis on my worst enemy,” says Jeff, who had to adjust his schedule as a software engineer around his dialysis schedule.

Meanwhile, in April 2007, Shands at the University of Florida received the robotic da Vinci Surgical System. The $1.4-million da Vinci system is designed to enable complex, minimally invasive surgeries. It consists of three main components: a patient table with four interactive robotic arms, an endoscopic camera and video system that transmits high-resolution, 3-D images from inside the body, and a surgeon’s console.

Sitting at this console, the surgeon views the procedure through binocular-style lenses and manipulates the robotic arms using stirrup-like controls that respond to finger and wrist movements. The robotic arms are equipped with miniature surgical tools and cameras and are inserted into the patient through four small abdominal incisions. The surgeon’s hands never enter the patient.

The Shands patients who were among the first to have this system available were those who were hospitalized for prostate and kidney procedures.

“This system gives us a more natural depth of field and higher magnification capabilities (than the laparoscopy method that was previously used),” said Sijo Parekattil, M.D., who is co-director of the UF robotic-surgery program and is fellowship-trained in robotic and minimally invasive surgical techniques. “It also has jointed-wrist controls that mimic the human range of motion and a computer system that allows us to adjust the size of our hand movements. These features allow us to perform more complex procedures with increased precision.”

The advantage, according to doctors, is a faster recovery time and less scarring for patients.

The Magdas learned the benefits of the da Vinci system firsthand. Christina had her kidney removed by the da Vinci robot.

“You go into the operating room and there is this giant thing in the corner,”?she says. “It kind of looked like a giant robotic spider.”

Christina says she was taken into the operating room at about 8 a.m. and the next thing she remembered was coming to in her recovery room at about 2 p.m. “There was very little pain,”?she says. “I was happy because I was worried about the pain. But, I was up and out of bed the next day.”

Christina says the nurses encouraged her to get up everyday and to be active. She and Jeff spent their recovery time on different floors of the hospital, which also encouraged them to get out of bed.

After having the surgery on a Wednesday in early October, Christina was back at her west Gainesville residence by Saturday. She was back at her job at Tower Hill Insurance Group about four weeks later. “I don’t feel any different than I did before the surgery,” she says.

Jeff, meanwhile, had “hands-on” surgeons actually performing his transplant, not the da Vinci system. Nevertheless, he says his recovery was much better than he expected. “I was told I would need about six weeks away from work, but I was back to work after four or five weeks,” he explains. He says the kidney has been healthy since the transplant, too.

“It’s nice just to have that comfort back,” he says. “There were certain things I couldn’t eat that had too much potassium or phosphorous. Now, the doctors are telling me to eat more of this stuff.”

The couple is looking forward to resuming life with more normalcy and without the inconvenience and pain of dialysis. “The nurses kept telling me to remind Jeff that he owes me for this,”?says Christina.

For more information on the da Vinci system, visit www.shands.org.