It's a first of its kind procedure here in the Brazos Valley.

Wednesday the College Station Medical Center performed its first full robotic heart surgery.

Doctors say the technology is the wave of the future. It allows patients to get in and out of the hospital quicker, and back to work with as little disruption from their daily lifestyle as possible.

Wednesday morning doctors used the da Vinci robot for a specialized heart procedure called a Transmyocardial Revascularization, or TMR.

Wilbert Sargent first started having heart problems back in 2002.

"This is about the third time that I've been here for heart surgery," Sargent said.

Although Wilbert knows the drill, this time it's a little bit different. Not only will a doctor be performing his surgery, but so will a robot.

Wilbert is optimistic this time around surgery will be able to do away with one nagging problem.

"I hope it stops this chest pain, stops me from going to the hospital so much," Sargent said.

Moments later Wilbert is rolled off to the operating room, and the procedure gets underway.

"The nice thing about doing this robotically, the robot itself has a lot of built in advantages," Dr. Andy Hansen said. "It has 3-D capabilities, 10 power magnification, and you get depth perception because of the 3-D."

Rather than have to crack the ribs or chest wall open, the technology allows doctors to make just four small incisions.
Then doctors move the arms of the robot, through handheld controls.

"We lay a probe on the heart and then turn the laser on and drill a hole on the outside of the heart to the inside. So that blood that's on the inside is oxygenated peculates through these drill holes," Hansen said.

Doctors say the body then reacts to those holes by growing small channels that in turn increase blood supply to the heart. Which will help to stop the chest pain Wilbert's been experiencing for some many years.

Once the surgery is completed, Dr. Hansen visits with Sargent's family members to tell them the procedure went well.

Together the family prays with the doctor for the fast recovery of Wilbert Sargent.

The Med is one of only a select few to do the robotic assisted TMR.

In general, surgeries assisted by the robot have quicker recovery times.

For example, patients recovering from an open heart surgery could take six weeks, to three months to fully get back to normal. Whereas, with the robotic procedure patients such as Wilbert could feel like themselves again in just one to two weeks.