Stephen Kerslake with Dr. Huy Hoang, the AdventHealth Fish Memorial surgeon who performed his robotic-assisted colostomy reversal.
ORANGE CITY, Fla. — For Stephen Kerslake, the difference showed up in his recovery.
The 59-year-old Orange City man came to AdventHealth Fish Memorial after a severe bout of diverticulitis caused a tear in his colon, leading to emergency open surgery and a temporary colostomy. He spent five days in the hospital and continued managing significant pain after returning home.
Months later, when it was time to reverse the colostomy, Dr. Huy Hoang, a general surgeon at AdventHealth Fish Memorial, used the hospital’s Da Vinci 5 robotic surgical system for the procedure.
“There was definitely a magnitude of difference in recovery time and the level of pain,” Kerslake said. “With the open surgery, the pain level was incredible, but with the robotic surgery, I don’t think I ever took (anything more than an over-the-counter pain reliever).”
He went home the next day after his robotic procedure and soon returned to walking a couple of miles a day as he rebuilt his endurance.
“With robotic-assisted surgery, many patients can have smaller incisions, less pain and a faster recovery, which means getting back home and back to their lives sooner,” said Dr. Stephen Knych, chief medical officer at AdventHealth Fish Memorial.
Kerslake’s experience comes as AdventHealth Fish Memorial recently surpassed 1,000 robotic surgeries since it acquired its first Da Vinci robot in 2022.
The hospital also recently earned accreditation as a Center of Excellence in robotic surgery from Surgical Review Corporation (SRC), an independent, nonprofit patient safety organization.
AdventHealth Palm Coast and AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway also received the designation, creating a connected network of recognized surgical programs across the region.
“When patients are facing surgery, they’re often thinking about more than the procedure itself,” Hoang said. “They’re thinking about how long they’ll be away from home, when they’ll feel like themselves again and how quickly they can get back to their normal life. Robotic-assisted surgery gives us another way to help patients move through that experience with less disruption when it’s the right option for them.”
For Kerslake, the technology mattered because it helped make a difficult season feel more manageable.
“I still remind myself that I’m healing inside,” Kerslake said. “But I feel pretty darn good.”
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