Would you let a robot operate on you?

[Hammock Parties]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...orts-rise.html

After Michelle Zarick complained of excessive vaginal bleeding, her doctor found growths in her uterus that needed to be removed. One option: robot surgery, described by her gynecologist as “the latest, greatest” technique available.

Michelle Zarick stands for a photograph at the law offices of Geragos & Geragos in Los Angeles. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
With nimble robotic instruments doing the delicate work usually performed by doctors hands-on, there would be less pain and bleeding, she was told.
“In my mind, there was no alternative but to use this fabulous technology,” she recalls thinking.

Five weeks later, she wished she hadn’t. That’s when Zarick felt something pop while she was in the bathroom, looked down and saw her intestine protruding from her vagina. Now, four years later, the 41-year-old Zarick has a hip-to-hip scar from corrective surgery, constipation from damaged rectal muscles and a diminished sex life, she said in an interview.

“It didn’t help me one bit, the robot,” said Zarick, who lives in Lincoln, California and filed suit in December against Intuitive in regard to her hysterectomy. “It forever changed my life for the worse.”

Robot systems made by Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) are linked to at least 70 deaths in informal incident reports sent to U.S. regulators since 2009, according to a review by Bloomberg News. Now, lawsuits like Zarick’s, one of at least 10 filed in the last 14 months, are adding new details about dangerous complications involving the da Vinci robots made by Intuitive.