Robotic medical arms race – timesfreepress.com
The CDC reports that one out of three women undergo hysterectomy by the age of 60 as inpatients. The number of outpatient hysterectomies is rapidly rising with the promotion of so-called “minimally invasive” hysterectomy. Although this implies that the surgery is less damaging, in fact it is as damaging as if the female organs were removed by “magic”, without an incision. Regardless of the method, by human hands or human controlled machines, the result is the same, a woman’s sex organs are removed and she will no longer experience uterine orgasm, and she will have an increased risk of heart disease, dementia, lung cancer and osteoporosis.
It’s doubtful Ashcraft would enjoy his surgeon bragging about her race to remove his penis and testicles in record time, untouched by human hands. The cool metal digits of a robot and the joy stick that controls it in her excited remotely stationed hands.
My mom just had a robotic assisted hysterectomy done last week in November at Magee Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. It has been awful ever since and she is having severe bladder issues. Not with leaking but with serious pain. She had been tossed aside by the surgeon and he brushed his hands of her case. I have taken her to regular gyne and urogyne for help. The uro gyne just wants to perform more tests and including systoscope. She is not going to have it done. Risks were not told to her by surgeon. She and our family asked several times about if the robot could damage her bladder and we were told repeatedly she would not have any bladder damage, everything will be perfect and fine. She was told 5 days after her surgery she shoudl be feeling 90% better. It is now mid march and she is still not well. Doctors don;t want to hear her out and want to give her drugs for depression. Heck this isn;t depression she is hurting. I am ready to take her to Johns Hopkins but not sure if it would be better elsewhere. If you have any information about the robot causing bladder issues please let me know.
Sue, very well said. Indeed, "The vigilance they have in censoring any negative posts on the www is testament to how much they have to hide."
They have much to hide but you and many other women expose them, the emperor with no clothes, for all to see.
The DaVinci manufacturer's website's strategic plan for marketing reveals how they teach doctors to promote robotic hysterectomy to women. They use the euphemism that their marketing toolkits are to "raise patient awareness":
Intuitive Surgical’s marketing team is available to assist with strategic planning, marketing collateral and templates designed to help you develop custom Marketing materials. Also, in accordance with your sales contract, Intuitive Surgical can offer a comprehensive da Vinci® Surgery marketing toolkit. The materials in this kit are designed to raise patient awareness and educate both patients and referring physicians on the value of da Vinci Surgery.
Brochures
Posters & print advertising
Website templates
Video
Patient/physician seminars
Radio ads
The marketing toolkit contains the bait to hook women and reel them in. It shows women smiling young women running through a field of Daisies with her little children running beside her. The suggestion is now that she is free from her uterus she is joyful, happy and with boundless energy.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Thanks for posting this, Sue, you're doing a great job educating women about the true consequences of hysterectomy. Please post this is on HERS Facebook, search for Hysterectomy and HERS will be the first on the list.
I came across this youtube video about a certain hysterectomy forum which, it seems has really only been created to promote the Da Vinci machine. I have posted on that forum a few times but I have often had my posts deleted because I write honestly and do not sugar coat this medical procedure.
This video is appalling. They are in shopping malls promoting this robotic surgery and letting the general public have a play on this machine.
You can try leaving a negative comment on youtube but I see they have deleted mine already.The vigilance they have in censoring any negative posts on the www is testament to how much they have to hide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHqJ6T6gywE
Sue
I had a radical hysterectomy in 2006, even my cervix was removed. My doctor informed me that my ovaries were in perfect conditon. No one informed me that I would be reliant upon hormone replacement for this many year now. It has been a nightmare. I haven't found a doctor yet that has gotten the right dose & I suffer from pelvic pain, dryness & bleeding and can rarely have sex due to pain. The (bioidentical) testosterone made me break out so much that I had to use accutane for 7 months. Now my skin is much thinner and much of my hair has fallen out. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't see much hope for my future sex life with my husband or have much hope in getting my hair back. I'm suffering from depression due to this now. The hysterectomy was done due to the fact that I had endometriosis and had 5 prior laproscopies w/laser. I also had taken lupron-depo and femara (I think that's the correct spelling.) The doctor's didn't want to keep treating me with vicodin and some didn't believe the serious pain I was in, so I gave in and had the hysterectomy. I don't understand why my two perfect ovaries were taken from me. Might anyone be able to help or inform me on this issue? I am at a loss. Thank you. kiercee27@hotmail.com
Mad ss Hell, great article. What's amazing is that they would even acknowledge it to the public or do anything about it. Doctors are enlarge taught to perform unnecessary surgeries, but it only seems to make it in the news when it's corrupt heart surgery.
I'm on a roll this weekend…
From http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/
baltimore/stories/2010/03/08/daily
20.html?ed=2010-03-09&ana=e_du_pub
St. Joseph informs another 169 cardiac patients of unnecessary stent implants
Where are the news reports of unnecessary (and permanently damaging) hysterectomies??
Working toward making these news reports a reality soon!!
Mad as Hell, thanks for posting the link to the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services – Office on Women's Health. I filled out the survey form and hope that others will do the same. It's a simple form where you rate the information and you can also leave text describing your concerns. Obviously the government gets their information from the profit seekers who don't want women to know the truth like ACOG.
The following U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services – Office on Women's Health website contains Frequently Asked Questions about Hysterectomy.
http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/
hysterectomy.cfm#g
The site contains a lot of misinformation and omissions of fact including:
It fails to mention the permanent damage caused by hysterectomy with or without ovary removal. It merely states that the removal of the uterus will end menstrual periods and the ability to become pregnant. As far as ovary removal (castration), it makes it sound like natural menopause as it states that you’ll enter menopause with symptoms such as “hot flashes and vaginal dryness.”
It also contains contradictory information as it first states that if you keep your ovaries, you may enter menopause at an earlier age. Then under the Risks section, it states “Early menopause, if the ovaries are removed.”
It states that a radical hysterectomy is done mostly for cancer. We know otherwise although any type of hysterectomy is permanently damaging.
It states that robotic surgery is most often done when the patient has cancer or is overweight. I doubt that. It's becoming the method of choice to more effectively market hysterectomy, keep the blood off the surgeons' hands, and possibly circumvent CDC reporting requirements.
Click on “Give us Feedback on this Information.” It states that feedback “will help us enhance our site and serve you better in the future. All results are strictly confidential." Let’s tell them how much misinformation and omissions of fact exist on this site. There are 12 multiple choice questions followed by a section for Comments on what you liked and disliked. Tell them the truth about hysterectomy from someone who’s living with the permanent consequences.
From the bottom of the webpage:
This fact sheet was reviewed by:
Edward L. Trimble, M.D., M.P.H.
Head, Gynecologic Cancer Therapeutics and Quality of Cancer Care Therapeutics
Clinical Investigations Branch
Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program
Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
National Cancer Institute
All material contained in this FAQ is free of copyright restrictions, and may be copied, reproduced, or duplicated without permission of the Office on Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services. Citation of the source is appreciated.
The Mercy “Health care” system is a big player in the hysterectomy industry.
St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis was a perpetrator and enabler in my hysterectomy and castration for a benign ovarian cyst by Dr. Richard C. Muckerman II. His deceased father, Dr. Richard C. Muckerman I, was a previous Chief of ob/gyn at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center. Two ob/gyn GME residents were also perpetrators as they assisted in the removal of my sex organs. Dr. Muckerman referred me to an oncologist and then failed to follow his recommendation to only remove the one ovary.
St. John’s GME website at http://stjohnsmercy.org/sjmmc/gme/obgyn/
rotations/gynecology.asp states:
“The large number of surgeries provides rapid advancement in the acquisition of surgical techniques. Abdominal and vaginal hysterectomies are the bread and butter of the gynecological inpatient rotation…”
According to the GME website:
Octavio R. Chirino, M.D. is the Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dionysios Veronikis, M.D. is the Program Director
Shame on you ABC Channel 7 WXYZ Detroit and Dr. Paul Corsi for promoting any kind of hysterectomy!
The field of gynecology is getting more and more cunning in their marketing of hysterectomy. They have to get as many women hysterectomized and/or castrated as they can before we put a stop to it.
The Saint Joseph Mercy GME website at http://www.sjmercyhealth.org/body.cfm?id=577 states:
“The large volume of surgical and obstetrical patients coupled with a committed faculty using evidence-based medicine allows for training of outstanding clinicians.”
They obviously aren’t using "evidence-based medicine" or they wouldn’t be performing so many hysterectomies for benign conditions. And doctors that perform unwarranted hysterectomies are not “outstanding clinicians”.
The site also states:
“Teaching and research typically found at a university hospital is coupled with a large volume of gynecologic and obstetrical patients creating the program that "has it all"… Deciding when to do surgery is as important as learning how to do surgery. Compassionate care is as important as competent diagnosis.“
I highly suspect that the “large volume of gynecologic” patients are mostly women who’ve been deceived into hysterectomy.
The decision to do hysterectomies is almost solely profit motivated.
There’s nothing compassionate about unwarranted hysterectomies.
Most doctors that perform hysterectomies are competent diagnosticians; they just choose to ignore the diagnostics and deceive women in order to unnecessarily remove organs for profit/greed.
The hospitals and GME residents are also responsible for this deception.
ABC WXYZ Action News in Detroit's slogan is "On Your Side" but they are anything but on women's side when they are promoting minimally invasive robotic daVinci hysterectomy for Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in Michigan. It's only minimally invasive for the doctor's hands as we know that no matter how it's done, it causes extensive damage to a woman's body. Lila Lazarus who is supposed to be a "good health" reporter is anything but that describing the only pitfall to a hysterectomy as an up to 6-week recovery time when in fact a woman can never recover from this surgery. If Ms. Lazarus really wanted to help women, she would have a story about how hysterectomy is the #1 unnecessary surgery in the U.S. and how damaging it is to a woman's well being. Why is Ms. Lazarus promoting a surgery that shortens a woman's life span, and causes increased risks for heart disease, dementia, lung cancer and osteoporosis without informing women of real consequences? WXYZ Channel 7 News and Ms. Lazarus should be ashamed of themselves for promoting this barbaric unnecessary surgery and not telling women the truth about all the damage it causes. Watch the video which is promoted by ABC Channel 7 WXYZ Detroit with Dr. Paul Corsi. Not once do they tell women about any of the known heath risks or consequences of this surgery. http://www.sjmercyhealth.org/
body.cfm?id=1672
The United States is a dangerous place for women because 1 out of 3 will be hysterectomized before she turns 60 years old.
I tried the link and it seems to be working. Try copying this into your browser:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/mar/08/robotic-medical-arms-race/
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Hello,
I tried to log onto the site, but would not let me scan down to read the article. Does one have to be a member to view articles at this 'Times Free Press'? Perhaps it was my computer, but I kept getting 'stuck'. I wish I could read and comment. Could someone let me know if having the same problem?
Hello to all out there, and hope you are having a good day.
Hello,
I tried to log onto the site, but would not let me scan down to read the article. Does one have to be a member to view articles at this 'Times Free Press'? Perhaps it was my computer, but I kept getting 'stuck'. I wish I could read and comment. Could someone let me know if having the same problem?
Tawanda, good point. Because robotic hysterectomy is being promoted as minimally invasive, women are being discharged the same day the surgery is performed. The CDC only reports the number of inpatient hysterectomies, so surgery performed on women discharged in less than 24 hours will not be reported in their hysterectomy statistics. The CDC does report several ambulatory (outpatient) surgeries, but they have excluded hysterectomy from their statistics.
HERS made a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for the outpatient hysterectomy statistics. They responded with a notice that they would comply with our request within the 20 days they are required to either provide the requested information or explain why they are not providing it. We are filing a second request.
We'll keep you posted on the blog when they respond.
With the push for increased demand of robot performed hysterectomy – how high will the annual volume of hysterectomized women escalate and will we know??