One thousand and counting …

An historical milestone for St. John’s Hospital

One thousand and counting St. Paul, MN (October 2, 2008) - On October 2, surgeons and the St. John's OR team performed their 1000th robot-assisted prostate cancer surgery, making them one of the top ten leading robotic surgery teams in the country. Christopher Knoedler, MD, HealthEast medical director of prostate cancer care and Robert Gaertner, MD, urologic surgeon, have performed all one-thousand surgeries with the da Vinci® System.

"These surgeons and the St. John's OR team have set the benchmark for da Vinci® surgeries," said Scott North, VP/CEO St. John's Hospital, who thanked the surgeons and OR staff during a brief congratulatory celebration and lunch following the one-thousandth surgery. "We're proud of their work!"

St. John's one-thousandth da Vinci® surgery took a little over an hour to perform compared to the very first one in May 2004, which took more than ten hours. "Thanks to highly-skilled OR staff and tons of coordination, we've been able to do as many as five of these surgeries a day now," said Dr. Knoedler.

St. John's Hospital was the first community hospital in the Twin Cities to offer the da Vinci® technology. Dr. Knoedler, Dr. Gaertner and the St. John's daVinci OR team are now training other surgeons and OR teams around the Twin Cities, Iowa and Wisconsin, on how to do these robotic surgeries.

"Compare to traditional surgery, the da Vinci® technology is potentially less painful, offers a shorter hospital stay and a quicker return to work or normal activity." Dr. Knoedler explained. "In addition, the da Vinci® technology may contribute to a potentially better return of urinary control and sexual function."

The one-thousandth patient was Rich Odash of Wyoming, Minnesota, who's only 45-years-old. Thanks to his wife, Barbara, for insisting he get a physical and his family physician, Christopher Luhman, MD, his prostate cancer was discovered very early and his prognosis is excellent. He now tells all his buddies to make sure they get checked. Finding his cancer early and being the one-thousandth da Vinci® patient at St. John's Hospital, Rich feels like he's a lucky guy.

Rich Odash, 1,000th da Vinci patient

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