Community Test Drive of da Vinci Robot

We Let the Public Test Drive the New da Vinci Robotic Surgery System

Brandon: Very, very steady. It feels like you have total control. The stability, it just . . . it amazed me just from what I thought a robot could do.

Cliff: I don't even play video games and it's really easy to operate and it's so nimble. Those little claws are so much finer than your hands in the way of tweezers or something.

Dr. Devine, I've actually had a little work with her and she's very competent and very knowledgeable. So I wouldn't be afraid to have her use it on me.

Brent: Your thumb and your pointer finger slip into the nice little grooves and then you can literally move your hands in any direction and it follows, so it's really interesting. And actually with the robots, there's probably less room for error, just more intricate surgeries to be done, more precise surgeries. And I think it's great that we're seeing more things like the da Vinci robot in places like Brookings and some of these more rural areas.

Kristen: I think it helped a lot, the small things you work with. You see what you're actually working with and how small it is and how easy it was to operate.