Daryl the robot celebrates 1,000th surgery
Daryl, the first surgical robot in Saskatchewan, recently passed an exciting milestone: It has now supported more than 1,000 surgeries! But for those who work alongside it every day, the moment is about more than a number.
“It shows the success of the program,” said Operating Room Manager Sean Peace, RN. “There are sites around the world with robots that sit unused. The fact that we use ours a lot is significant.”
That success began with community support. As the first da Vinci surgical robot in the province, Daryl was brought to St. Paul’s Hospital through the extraordinary generosity of the Merlis Belsher Family, whose $1.1 million gift led the way, alongside the support of many donors and the Ministry of Health. The robot is named in honour of Mr. Belsher’s late son, Daryl.
From the beginning, surgical teams embraced the opportunity to work with the new technology.
“The program has been successful because we had buy-in from surgeons, especially the urologists,” said Sean. “Everyone got on board.”
That early commitment shaped how the program grew. While many centres focus on one type of procedure at a time, teams at St. Paul’s quickly expanded what was possible.
“In our first week, we did four different surgeries,” said Robot Coordinator Jamye Ladebruk-Cathcart, RN. “Soon we were trying everything that could be done laparoscopically.”
Today, the robot supports procedures across urology, thoracics, and gyne-oncology, with urology now the primary focus.
The early success of the program inspired the province to fund a second robot at SPH, and more have been installed at other hospitals in the province. Now Saskatchewan has the most surgical robots per capita in the country.
Care that supports both patients and providers
The da Vinci robot is used to support surgeons in as many as three surgeries per day, which wouldn’t be possible with a traditional laparoscopic surgery.
“Doing a prostate laparoscopically requires the surgeon to hold instruments with their arms in a fixed, uncomfortable position,” Jamye explained. “With the robot, they sit at a console with proper ergonomics, so they experience fewer physical issues and can do more procedures in a day.”
The technology enhances precision and control, which also improves the experience for patients.
“For patients, recovery is much faster,” she said. “They experience fewer side effects. … Patients often go home the next day instead of staying three days post-op.”
Even at 1,000 procedures, the work continues to evolve. Sean says the provincial robotics program is looking into adding more surgeries to its roster, such as ear, nose and throat surgeries transplant kidney retrievals. Jamye says she envisions a day where there’s a robot in every operating room and robotic surgery replaces laparoscopic surgery entirely.
Through it all, one thing remains constant: technology serves people.
Each procedure represents a patient receiving care, a family supported, and a team working together with compassion and skill.
This milestone belongs to everyone who made it possible: surgeons, nurses, staff, and a community whose generosity continues to shape care at St. Paul’s Hospital.