My Life Ruined by Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

Pre-surgery, I was told under pressure by my surgeon that I had no option but to undergo robotic surgery, not laparoscopic, for a routine hysterectomy procedure. Little did I know that I would be his first human patient on the Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) da Vinci System.

On February 24th, 2022, I underwent what would become a maximally-invasive surgery. A probe on the da Vinci robot went out of control, burning my ureter all the way to the leg vein, damaging it beyond repair, which triggered a cascade of severe life-threatening medical issues.

All follow-up surgeries performed in an attempt to repair my burnt ureter had failed, and I had to undergo a debilitating nephrostomy to bypass my kidney which was healthy pre the da Vinci robotic surgery.

The kidney was then removed as result of damage from the surgeries. In the interim, the bacteria leaking from my damaged ureter put me into septic shock, which caused a stroke, facial paralysis, chronic fatigue, cognitive damage, and a host of other debilitating symptoms. My bladder has also been damaged.

My remaining kidney, also healthy pre-surgery, was damaged from the stage-3 sepsis that I suffered. Its current condition is tentative, and I have to come to grips that I may not survive this ordeal.

Besides all the medical trauma, this has obviously been a huge financial and emotional toll on me, and one of my doctors diagnosed me with PTSD. How much longer I may live is very much in question right now, but if I survive the robotic assault that has so victimized me, I’ll be put into financial ruin by the many expensive medical bills that my insurance won’t cover.

Kara Andersen Reiter, Intuitive’s SVP of Litigation, personally told me that my case was “tragic and rare”, along with an empty apology. Tragic, yes, but rare, no. Here’s a common story, one of many others like mine; NBC News - The da Vinci surgical robot: A medical breakthrough with risks for patients - "I put all my faith in the doctor and didn't ask questions," says Laurie Featherstone, whose colon and ureter were injured during robotic surgery; https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/da-vinci-surgical-robot-medical-breakthrough-risks-patients-n949341. Also cited in the article, “U.S. Food and Drug Administration MAUDE database over the past 10 years showed there were more than 20,000 adverse events related to the da Vinci filed with the FDA  . . .  More than 2,000 adverse events were categorized as involving injuries, 274 were categorized as deaths, and nearly 17,000 events were classified as device malfunctions.”

While Intuitive says they provide abundant training resources for the da Vinci System, there is still no industry-wide established standardized training. The training of the surgeon who operated on me was dangerously inadequate, and he did not, nor was required to undergo thorough training regardless of what resources may have been available. There’s also consensus among surgeons that it can take hundreds of robotic procedures to master. WSJ - Damage Control: Dangers of da Vinci Surgery Robot; “Dr Samadi regarded as an expert in robotic surgery has done nearly 3,000 operations with the DaVinci, he says it takes at least 200 cases for a surgeon to be comfortable with the machine”.
WIRED - Med Students Are Getting Terrible Training in Robotic Surgery; https://www.wired.com/story/med-students-are-getting-terrible-training-in-robotic-surgery/

I feel that I should also warn others about what can easily turn maximally-invasive, which was my experience with the da Vinci. And I also ask people to think twice before investing in a company that tries to hide adverse events, injuries and malfunctions. A class-action lawsuit by shareholders, suing for misleading statements by Intuitive Surgical, ended in a large settlement. These shareholders certainly deserved truth and transparency, and their case was justified. But my life, which may not last much longer, has been destroyed by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. because of their robot. What kind of compensation could make up for that?