BOUNTIFUL — Eleven-year-old Kendra Thomas wants to be a doctor, an idea that gained even more focus when she beat two surgeons in a medical robotics contest.
During an open house Thursday night, Lakeview Hospital gave community members an opportunity to take a simulator of the da Vinci Robotics System for a test drive.
Kendra participated in a “Beat the Surgeon’s Time” contest and scored 96 percent for her accuracy.
The best surgeon scored 93 percent.
“It was kind of hard trying to grab things,” she said. “But it’s really cool, and it was really fun.”
The hospital began using the system in February. The robot, made by Intuitive Surgical, enables surgeons to perform minimally invasive operations using high-definition, 3-D optics, said Randy Allred, clinical sales representative for Intuitive Surgical.
Taking a $5 bill, Allred zoomed in on the Lincoln Memorial and could clearly see the names of 26 states.
“That’s zoomed in at 10 times’ magnitude,” he said. “The robot can actually zoom in to 40 times’ magnitude, so you can see the ability the surgeon has while performing an operation.”
West Haven resident Barbara Epsinger had surgery with the robotics system two months ago.
“I wanted to come and see it while I was wide awake,” she said. “It’s really amazing. If I would have had surgery without it, I would have been in the hospital 12 to 14 days, but I went home after two days.”
Ben Copp, of Centerville, used the simulator to tie a knot in an elastic band.
“It’s pretty cool. They said I did it under a minute.”
The hospital also held a coloring contest for elementary school-aged children, giving them the opportunity to come up with a name for the robot.
Sophie Phipps, 8, of Kaysville, won.
“I came up with the name Robostiltskin after Rumpelstiltskin,” she said. “In Rumpelstiltskin, they had to keep guessing his name, so that’s what I did when I was trying to come up with a name. I just kept guessing until I came up with that one.”
Robostiltskin will be used for several types of procedures, including obstetrics, urology and general surgery.
During an open house Thursday night, Lakeview Hospital gave community members an opportunity to take a simulator of the da Vinci Robotics System for a test drive.
Kendra participated in a “Beat the Surgeon’s Time” contest and scored 96 percent for her accuracy.
The best surgeon scored 93 percent.
“It was kind of hard trying to grab things,” she said. “But it’s really cool, and it was really fun.”
The hospital began using the system in February. The robot, made by Intuitive Surgical, enables surgeons to perform minimally invasive operations using high-definition, 3-D optics, said Randy Allred, clinical sales representative for Intuitive Surgical.
Taking a $5 bill, Allred zoomed in on the Lincoln Memorial and could clearly see the names of 26 states.
“That’s zoomed in at 10 times’ magnitude,” he said. “The robot can actually zoom in to 40 times’ magnitude, so you can see the ability the surgeon has while performing an operation.”
West Haven resident Barbara Epsinger had surgery with the robotics system two months ago.
“I wanted to come and see it while I was wide awake,” she said. “It’s really amazing. If I would have had surgery without it, I would have been in the hospital 12 to 14 days, but I went home after two days.”
Ben Copp, of Centerville, used the simulator to tie a knot in an elastic band.
“It’s pretty cool. They said I did it under a minute.”
The hospital also held a coloring contest for elementary school-aged children, giving them the opportunity to come up with a name for the robot.
Sophie Phipps, 8, of Kaysville, won.
“I came up with the name Robostiltskin after Rumpelstiltskin,” she said. “In Rumpelstiltskin, they had to keep guessing his name, so that’s what I did when I was trying to come up with a name. I just kept guessing until I came up with that one.”
Robostiltskin will be used for several types of procedures, including obstetrics, urology and general surgery.