An urgent robotic surgery resolved Susan Bombardier’s intestinal blockage and reduced the risks of a recurrence.
ROBOTIC
RELIEF MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY REPAIRS A WOMAN’S DANGEROUS HERNIA.
S
usan Bombardier had just arrived home from a celebratory dinner for her husband’s birthday in February 2021 when waves of pain and vomiting brought her to her knees. The pain was so searing that the savory Italian meal she’d just enjoyed didn’t seem to be the culprit. But what was? She and her husband, Richard, sought help at the Emergency Department at Community Medical Center (CMC). While Richard waited in a separate area due to pandemic safety precautions, doctors quickly performed imaging exams and other tests to determine why the 58-year-old Bayville resident’s pain was so intense. As Susan lay in place for a CAT scan, she became aware of something strange: a huge lump underneath her navel. A former emergency medical technician, Susan thought this abnormality offered a clue to her diagnosis. Unknown to her, a sizable hernia—a gap in her abdominal wall—was dangerously squeezing a loop of intestine that had become trapped in the opening, blocking normal digestion. “I was doubled over—and I’m someone who can get a filling in my teeth with no anesthesia because I have a high tolerance for pain,” says Susan. “But by the time I saw this giant, softball-sized lump, I just thought, ‘Get it out of there!’ I was in agony.”
Healthy Together
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Winter 2022
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