NBC4: News Anchor Colleen Marshall Undergoes Robotic Surgery at OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital
After a heroic attempt to donate her kidney to a family member on dialysis, NBC4 news anchor Colleen Marshall’s medical tests delivered some news she wasn’t prepared for. She has stage-four kidney nephrosis, a blockage that’s already left her kidney with close to half of its original function.
It was Ronney Abaza, MD, a robotic urologic surgeon at OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, that delivered her life-saving surgery, with the help of the hospital’s single-port robot. The technology is only the second of its kind in the state and has helped pave the way toward an increase in robotic surgery.
“When I was in training the majority of it was done through an open incision, and so we saw how much pain the patients had, how long they stayed in the hospital, how much narcotics they were taking to keep them comfortable,” Dr. Abaza told Marshall in a recent interview. “All of these things have changed. This robot is taking us to even more minimally invasive surgery because now we can eliminate three or four other incisions and do it just through one opening and all four robotic arms go through that one incision.”
Going in through a smaller incision has helped Marshall experience less muscle damage, pain and a shorter hospital stay, things that wouldn’t have been possible through a traditional operation.
To Dr. Abaza, one of the first five doctors in the world to perform more than five thousand robotic surgeries, the surgery is one of many he has and will continue to perform. However, performing kidney transplants is where his heart lies.
“We don’t have enough organs for people who need them, so people are dying on a waiting list, waiting to get a kidney or another organ,” he said. “So, it really is the best thing that somebody can do for another human being is to donate a kidney. Immediately, they have a huge dramatic change in their life, from having to go to the dialysis center three times a week and sit there for hours. Their life changes 180 degrees as soon as they get a kidney transplant.”
To read about Marshall’s entire journey, click on NBC4’s station logo below.
To learn more about urology services at OhioHealth, click here.
