Posted: 10/17/07
Sunrise man first in state to undergo robotic heart surgery
 Dr. Goya Raikar at the controls of the da Vinci S Surgical System, a robot assisted device making heart surgery less invasive. Inset: Walter Koecher. |
By Patrick Tepoorten
It was President Ronald Reagan who endorsed virtual reality in the 1980s, when he noted that improvements to hand-eye coordination would be evident in the next generation of fighter pilots. It turned out he was more prophetic than even he may have imagined, though in different disciplines.
Around the same time video gaming caught the late former president's eye, Walter Koecher, 64, Sunrise Township, was embarking on a project firmly rooted in actual reality, building a house with his own two hands. At the time, it may have been preposterous to fathom a time when Koecher's reality and a new, virtual reality, would collide. But collide they did, and Koecher would become the first Minnesotan to receive heart surgery with an assist from robots.
It was mid-August when Koecher, an outdoors man, was tending to his "to do" list around his property when he became short of breath. When a rest didn't improve matters, he went to the emergency room. Two days later he had his diagnosis: a leaking mitral valve in his heart; and a prescription: open heart surgery.
Koecher was nervous about the invasive procedure and with good reason; the surgery involves a long, painful recovery. Then, about two weeks before the surgery was scheduled, Dr. Goya Raikar, head of Regions Hospital's cardiovascular surgery department, presented Koecher with a different option, a robot assisted surgery far less invasive and with an abbreviated recovery period.
The "da Vinci S Surgical System" requires only a handful of small incisions and is the marriage of a surgeon's skills with robotic technology. It comes with a greatly reduced risk of infection, less pain and scarring, and a recovery period that promises most patients will be "back to normal daily activities within two weeks."
Any trepidation Koecher suffered regarding the cutting edge process were assuaged by the possibility of a shorter recovery and his faith in Dr. Raikar. "He is really good in his line, very competent," said Keocher last Friday.
And, when Koecher got a look at "da Vinci," he was struck by how much it was like a video game. The surgeon sits and looks into a scope while his hands manipulate two "joysticks" that control the robot. The advantage for the surgeon is the ability to operate in very small spaces, magnified 10 times, without hand tremor or having to lay bare the patient to gain access.
So, given the video game aspect of the procedure, could an average 12-year-old perform it with a few weeks to practice? "Knowing my grand kids they could probably pull it off," laughed Koecher, "But I don't know if I'd want them to try."
All kidding aside, Koecher did indeed become only the third overall patient to receive the procedure at Regions, and the first from Minnesota. Five days later, on Oct. 2, he was checking out while other patients, those who had received more traditional open heart surgery even before Koecher checked into the surgical unit, were still on the floor in recovery.
He's still a bit under the weather, which he attributes to catching a cold, but Koecher feels pretty good otherwise and is looking forward to getting back to fishing and other outdoor activities soon. "We'd be doing this interview from the river if I could fish," he added.
As far as what it meant to have access to the procedure, Koecher said it was like winning the lottery. "I was at the right place at the right time. I was a very lucky man."
The father of three, and grandfather of nine even took a moment to daydream about what might be possible in another 30 years. "Maybe you could have it done over the phone," he said. That would likely be just fine with Koecher, as long as he could still fish the old fashioned way.
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