da Vinci Robot-Assisted Surgery

Last week-end when Linda's (Linda Letters) son had surgery to remove a kidney and was back home the next day, wearing elastic waisted pants, and able to sit at the dinner table with the rest of the family, I was blown away. How could he do that? Now I know, Linda posted this YouTube video on Facebook yesterday. Now it all makes sense.

I've been thinking about this since watching the video and have a few things I'd like to say.

1) This is amazing technology and every town should have it available to patients. The danger I see in this is that now every hospital in town will think they have to have it or their patients will think they're a second rate hospital.

This technology is major expensive. My opinion is, that to keep health costs down, every hospital doesn't need to purchase such equipment. Many years ago the Santa Fe Railroad had its own hospitals for employees. My father used one. It was located in a town with a major medical center. To cut costs, the RR hospital had an agreement with the major medical center to do expensive procedures. The patient would be placed in a van equipped like an ambulance and transported to the major medical center. After the procedure, the patient would then be transported back to the RR hospital to complete their needed stay. It was a big cost saver for the RR. Why can't that be done today?

This technology is current for only a short time. Every hospital doesn't need one. Let other hospitals purchase other expensive technology and share.

Then again if every hospital doesn't buy into this they might not sell enough to be profitable, and factory workers would lose their jobs. Is there anyway to win in this rat race?

2) Watching this video reminded me of technology I see when watching NASA videos. Now which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did NASA (government funds) do the research and development of robots and the medical world tapped into it? Or is it possible the medical world did the research and development and NASA tapped into it?
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Did you know that when the miners were trapped so long in that mine in Chile, NASA was asked to come and oversee feeding them and monitoring their health?
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That's enough of me for today. I'm off now to do a little knitting.