Local high school students got some unique hands-on experience Thursday at Westover Hills Baptist Hospital.

Health science students from Brennan High School got to test out a $5 million surgical robotics system: da Vinci 5.

“My heart was beating fast, out of excitement mostly,” student Elia Lukose said. “It felt very exhilarating. I loved it”.

Lukose is a junior at Brennan High School, aspiring to become an orthopedic nurse practitioner. She was the first student to take the controls of the da Vinci 5.

The da Vinci 5 is the latest model of the system being used every day at the hospital, allowing surgeons to go into the body without having to make huge or major incisions.

Instead of the surgeon’s hands, specially designed instruments attached to slender robotic arms enter the body thr

See Full Page