Cancer patient dies during surgery after robot 'burns hole in her intestine'

11 February 2024 , 21:29

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A husband has filed a lawsuit after claiming a robotic system used to help treat her during surgery is the reason she died

A woman's death during cancer surgery is being blamed on a hospital's surgical robot which allegedly burnt a hole in her small intestines.

Florida woman Sandra Sultzer was admitted to Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Boca Raton back in 2021, a lawsuit filed by her husband earlier this week revealed. She had colon cancer and underwent surgery from a doctor with the help of a da Vinci robotic system.

The lawsuit didn't name the hospital as a defendant in the civil case, but instead named Surgical Inc. (ISI), which is the manufacturer of the device. The company has been accused of negligence and product liability. Neither Intuitive Surgical nor Baptist Health Boca Raton have commented.

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The company behind the Da Vinci surgical system has been accused of negligence and product liability (VCG via Getty Images)

It is believed Sultzer suffered a burn that caused a tear in her small intestines while she was on the operating table and she required additional surgeries to close it. The lawsuit claims Intuitive Surgical was aware of the da Vinci system’s insulation issues - including electricity leakage into patients' bodies, but failed to inform the hospital and staff.

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After the surgeries, Sultzer began to experience a fever and abdominal pain, according to the lawsuit, the Huff Post reports. As a result, she continued to undergo medical procedures because of the injuries she suffered. It said: "The injury suffered by Mrs. Sultzer caused her pain and emotional distress. Mrs. Sultzer incurred expense of medical care, hospitalization, treatment, nursing care and treatment, and the expense of rehabilitative care and treatment.”

In February 2022, Sultzer sadly died and her husband's lawsuit claims it was as a “direct and proximate result of the injuries she suffered” from the robotic device. The court documented added: “Had ISI safely designed its product so that stray electrical energy would not burn the insides of patients without the knowledge or control of the operating surgeons, the small intestine injury to Mrs. Sultzer would not have happened, and she would not have died."

Intuitive Surgical had received thousands of reports citing “dangerous injuries,” including internal organ burns, that were allegedly caused by the robot’s electrical discharge, the lawsuit says. The company has been named in several liability lawsuits across the country which have seen claims patients were left injured or died as a result of surgery with the system. Trials into these claims are set to take place in the future. The lawsuit also alleged that Intuitive Surgical “bullies hospitals and physicians to purchase and use the robot.”

Sean McPolin