Oneida Healthcare Introduces the da Vinci

Some innovative technology will help one area hospital's patients recover more quickly than before.

The new piece of technology is called the da Vinci. And some may say the innovative equipment is most likely named after the renaissance master-- Leonardo da Vinci.

"I know it's because of the da Vinci, " says Carolyn Nelson.

It has a keen eye and a steady hand-- just like Leonardo da Vinci. But instead of making paintings and sculptures-- it can help save lives and cut down on patient recovery time.

Carolyn Nelson, a histologist at Oneida Healthcare, experienced first-hand what the da Vinci can do.

"They saved 90 percent of my kidney by using the da Vinci. They didn't have to open my body up and were able to do it minimally and invasively."

Employees were able to test out the machine today. Carolyn says it was interesting to see the machine first-hand.

"It's 3D. It's a 3D picture and you can see exactly where your tools are and move them with little bit of effort to get what you need to get done," says Carolyn.

The da Vinci is a surgical system designed to provide doctors in the operating room with enhanced capabilities.

"It's really a tool for the surgeon. It's the surgeon still doing the surgery-- it provides instrumentation that's so intricate and so fine that even a human hand can't be that meticulous," Kay Kohlbrenner.

Doctors can control the machine which translates the doc's hand movements into smaller movements of tiny instruments inside the body. And because doctor's using the da Vinci don't have to open up the body.

"Instead of a large incision of when someone has to have an open procedure-- you end up having tiny insertion points and so that alone is much more easier to recover from," Kohlbrenner.

And Dr. Alberto Del Pino will be the first one at the Oneida Hospital to perform on the da Vinci next week.