NEW ROBO

Grandma of 14 one of Indiana patients to experience new, robotic technology during brain surgery

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A grandma of 14 is among the first patients in Indiana to undergo brain surgery with doctors using new, robotic technology.

Lisa Foster was having headaches, her neck was stiff and she could hardly walk. Like so many do, she googled her symptoms and diagnosed herself with Multiple Sclerosis.

But a visit to the doctor two days before she was set to go on a cruise discovered something else.

“She said it’s a gigantic tumor in your brain stem,” Foster said.

It was not cancer, but the tumor had to go.

“We chose the goal of getting much of the tumor out as possible with knowing that we didn’t want to injure some of the vital nerves of the brain stem,” Dr. Mitesh Shaw, a neurosurgeon at IU Health said.


He did that with the help of a new technology, a digital microscope attached to a robotic arm that turns and moves and shows up on a big screen, giving the surgeon a better picture of what they’re seeing. It also gives surgeons a road map so they can