SAN ANTONIO – An 82-year-old Baptist Health System patient says the hospital’s newest hybrid operating room helped save his life after doctors found a dangerous aneurysm.
Daniel Amendola was facing major surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm and was hesitant about undergoing a traditional open procedure last year. That was until his vascular surgeon told him about the hospital’s latest technology.
“I was totally against having open surgery, and so Dr. Peck told us about this hybrid operating room, and we decided to go ahead and schedule it,” Amendola said.
Dr. Michael Peck, a vascular surgeon with Baptist Health, said the hospital’s new hybrid operating room allows doctors to perform both open surgery and minimally invasive, endovascular procedures in the same space.
“This is a hybrid operating room, which is a fantastic new addition because it lets us do a combination of open surgery and endovascular minimally invasive surgery at the same time using X-ray and surgical teams together,” Peck said.
Peck said the advanced technology helps save time for patients in critical condition.
“If we can save them a second anesthetic or if we could do a procedure in a hybrid way that maybe takes less time, it gives the patient safety, security and it solves their medical problem,” he said.
In Amendola’s case, Peck said the team was able to avoid a large, open chest and abdominal surgery by using small incisions in his arm and groin.
“We went from his arm with a little incision, and we went (through) his femoral, his groin area with two little incisions, and instead of having to do an open chest and abdomen surgery, it saved him a lot of risk and a lot of complication, and in about four or five hours, he got everything fixed,” Peck said.
Amendola knows the stakes were high.
“Nobody knows for sure what would have happened had I not had the surgery,” he said. “The aneurysm could very well have burst, and I would have died.”
Now recovering, Amendola said he’s thankful for the technology and the team that used it.
“I’m just so grateful to Dr. Peck and the surgery team that worked with me,” Amendola said. “And I’m here today to tell you about it, because I might not have been.”
The hybrid operating room combines interventional techniques with traditional surgery. The Baptist Health System has one hybrid operating room, located at its North Central hospital in Stone Oak.