Keyhole’ Dennis is patched up in half the time
A PATIENT who underwent a major double operation to remove two tumours was home within six days—one of the first in Britain to benefit from a unique keyhole’ surgery. Doctors in East London discovered Dennis O’Neill, 59, had tumours in his colon and liver and had to abandoned the idea of conventional surgery
A PATIENT who underwent a major double operation to remove two tumours was home within six days—one of the first in Britain to benefit from a unique keyhole’ surgery.
Doctors in East London discovered 59-year-old Dennis O’Neill had tumours in his colon and liver and had to abandoned the idea of conventional surgery.
Instead, they opted to be among the first to carry out a double operation using keyhole’ techniques.
REMOVING TUMOURS
It involved removing one tumour from the lower intestine and another from his liver at the same time—which took nearly 11 hours during the innovative surgery at the Royal London in Whitechapel.
Instruments were inserting through small holes with a miniature camera guiding the surgeon’s skilled hand with a video screen.
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The father-of-three was home in half the time—six days instead of the usual 12 after the more traditional operation.
UP THE SWANNY
“Six months ago, it looked like I was up the swanny without a paddle,” Dennis said at his home in Dagenham.
“But they operated and it meant I wasn’t going to be split down the middle.
“I had my liver done first, then the colon. I was watching snooker on the telly two days later—it was amazing.”
The x-rays show that the surgeons have done “a lovely job” and Dennis’s scars are healing up well.
Consultant surgeon Shafi Ahmed said: “This was one of the first such procedures to use keyhole surgery in the UK. We all felt so confident in this case it was going to work.”
The Royal London runs one of the largest centres of its kind in Britain for treating patients with biliary, pancreatic and liver diseases.
