Fernando da Silva, a man who lives in Angola, Africa, received surgery from Orlando based Dr. Vipul Patel and help from robotics.
NEW: Florida doctor performs prostate surgery on a man 7000 miles away, a first of its kind.
This is so cool.
Fernando da Silva, a man who lives in Angola, Africa, received surgery from Orlando based Dr. Vipul Patel and help from robotics.
Da Silva was diagnosed with prostate… pic.twitter.com/tC2xWbyW79
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 21, 2025
NEW: Florida doctor performs prostate surgery on a man 7000 miles away, a first of its kind.
This is so cool.
Fernando da Silva, a man who lives in Angola, Africa, received surgery from Orlando based Dr. Vipul Patel and help from robotics.
Da Silva was diagnosed with prostate cancer three months ago.
He has now become the first patient of the new human clinical trial which was approved by the FDA, as noted by ABC 7.
“We’ve been working on this really for two years. We traveled the globe, looking at the right technologies,” said Patel to ABC 7.
“I think the humanitarian implications are enormous. Internationally, obviously, there’s so many underserved areas of the world.”
“We made sure we had plan A, B, C, and D. I always have my team where the patient is in case something happened with the telecommunications… the team would just take over and finish the case and do it safely.”