A 28-year-old who got a lease of life after undergoing a robotic colorectal surgery for low rectal cancer four years ago has finished post-graduation in medicine — and won a gold medal.
“She was diagnosed with very low rectal cancer in 2017 when she was 24, just as she was about to join her medical post-graduation,” said Dr Venkatesh Munikrishnan, consultant colorectal and robotic surgeon, The Apollo Institute of Colorectal Surgery, Chennai. “This is because conventional surgery for colorectal cancer leaves patients with a colostomy — that is, a surgically created opening in the body that routes bowel waste away into an external colostomy bag.”
The youth’s achievement incidentally comes at a time when the institute marks completion of five years since it began offering minimally invasive robotic surgical techniques and technology to patients with colorectal diseases, particularly colorectal cancer.
Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group, said they plan to extend the robotic colorectal surgery program to other hospitals in the group.