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Robotic surgery offers safer option for older patients
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Dr. Brent Sharpe with the da Vinci Surgical System, the surgeon’s console on the left and the robotic patient cart on the right. - photo by Tom Reed
After two years of unexplained weight loss and weakness, Jerry Fordham finally feels well enough to build birdhouses in the workshop behind his house again. The 74-year-old was diagnosed with bladder cancer last November. Shortly after his 53rd wedding anniversary, his urologist surgically removed the cancer but found that it had spread into his left ureter, the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder.