Prisma Health offers students the opportunity to test drive surgery robot, da Vinci

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) – Robots have long left behind the limits of science fiction and have become a vital part of the medical field.

This afternoon students from Ridge View High School had the opportunity to test drive the latest “da Vinci surgery robot.”

Doctors we spoke with say some of these students may one day be using this machine in a life or death situation.

The da Vinci surgical system gives surgeons an advanced set of instruments to use in performing robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery. It translates a surgeon’s hand movements at the console in real time, bending and rotating the instruments while performing the procedure.

Students from the Heyward Career and Technology Center and White Knoll High School also participated in today’s demonstration.