A lawsuit has been filed by a Florida man claiming that his wife died due to injuries sustained from a hospital’s surgical robot, which caused a hole in her small intestines during cancer surgery. Sandra Sultzer, who was being treated for colon cancer, underwent surgery at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida in 2021, using a da Vinci robotic system, as stated in the lawsuit obtained by HuffPost. The lawsuit did not name the hospital as a defendant in the civil case, but it did name Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISI), the manufacturer of the robotic device, alleging negligence and product liability. There has been no response to HuffPost’s requests for comment from either Intuitive Surgical or Baptist Health Boca Raton. The lawsuit alleges that Sultzer suffered a burn during surgery, leading to a tear in her small intestines, which required additional procedures to address. It also accuses Intuitive Surgical of knowing about insulation issues with the da Vinci system that can cause electricity leakage into patients’ bodies, but failing to inform the hospital and its staff. Following the surgery, Sultzer experienced abdominal pain and fever, undergoing multiple medical procedures due to her injuries. The lawsuit claims that the injury resulted in physical and emotional distress for Sultzer, as well as significant medical expenses for her care. Sultzer passed away in February 2022, with the lawsuit attributing her death directly to the injuries caused by the da Vinci device. The suit argues that if ISI had designed its product to prevent stray electrical energy from causing harm to patients without the knowledge or control of the operating surgeons, Sultzer’s small intestine injury and subsequent death would not have occurred. The lawsuit states that Intuitive Surgical had received numerous reports of dangerous injuries, including internal organ burns, allegedly caused by the robot’s electrical discharge. Additionally, the company has been named in liability lawsuits across the US, with scheduled trial dates for these cases. The lawsuit further alleges that Intuitive Surgical pressures hospitals and physicians to purchase and use the robot. In a report by NBC News in 2018, it was revealed that while Intuitive Surgical offers a da Vinci training program, completion of this program is not legally required for surgeons.
