Hearing the word “surgery” can be terrifying. It often invokes images of long and dangerous operations with even longer recovery times. But that doesn’t need to be the case.
With the help of an esteemed team of surgeons, Brookwood Baptist Health Primary & Specialty Care Network has incorporated cutting-edge robotics into their practice.
Since the first robotic surgery was performed in 2009, they have continued to see amazing results. Robotics and the talented surgeons who utilize them can drastically reduce recovery times and minimize the invasiveness of many operations.
Dr. Vivian Yeilding is one of the leading general surgeons providing robotic surgery at Brookwood Baptist Health.
“I grew up in a medicine family,” Dr. Yeilding said. Her mother led a successful career as a nurse, and her father continues to practice as a hematologist/oncologist. “I saw the incredible rewards both [parents] received from their careers. This made me focus on medicine early on with early jobs in hospitals as a patient care assistant in Carraway Methodist ER and Brookwood's ER.”
Her experiences throughout her young career eventually led her to follow in her father’s footsteps, becoming a doctor herself.
“It was incredible to watch physicians transform patients' lives and watch the incredible bond created between each patient and physician,” Dr. Yeilding said.
Now, Dr. Yeilding experiences that bond herself and does everything she can to provide the best possible health care.
“General surgery came natural to me, as one of my favorite courses was anatomy and I love to work with my hands,” she said. “It is an exciting field that is constantly evolving due to the advancements in medicine and technology. Surgery is often very gratifying, as it involves a wide range of pathologies including some acute life-threatening illnesses that can be cured with one operation.”
Thankfully, she can now offer many of those operations with the help of robotics.
“I am trained and certified in robotic surgery and enjoy using the daVinci robotic platform to assist in my operations to allow for a minimally invasive approach and improved patient outcomes,” Dr. Yeilding said.
With the da Vinci®Surgery system, surgical incisions that might have been inches long can be minimized to only a few millimeters. This increased precision allows many procedures that might have required hospitalization to be performed outpatient. Others procedures may still require inpatient care but in a significantly reduced timeframe.
Utilizing the da Vinci®Surgery system, Dr. Yeilding and other Brookwood Baptist Health surgeons can use minimally invasive surgeries throughout the body, treating a diverse range of ailments.
Some of the procedures and operations Dr. Yeilding performs in general include thyroid/parathyroid surgery, ultrasound- and mammography-guided breast biopsies, gallbladder removal, appendectomy, hernia repair, vascular access/port a cath placement, spleen removal and many more.
“I treat each patient as I would want to be treated and am very invested in their health and well being, not just their general surgery needs alone,” Dr. Yeilding said.
Brookwood Baptist Health is a leader in health care. With cutting-edge innovations and a wealth of knowledgeable doctors, nurses and staff, Brookwood Baptist Health is committed to improving each patient's quality of living with every encounter.
