Olivia Pizzuto sat behind a large console and looked into a computer screen, which showed her what the four robotic arms a few feet behind her were doing.
As she worked the controls, each arm in turn picked up a packet of lemon juice and dropped it into a foam cup. With each maneuver, her Riverhead High School classmates cheered.
Volunteers from Peconic Bay Medical Center struggled to say where they were bound as they reached passport control at the airport in San Salvador. “It starts with a … J? Ju … Ju … Jucuapa?”
The group was headed to the small town in southwest El Salvador for a one-week medical mission trip. Over the course of six days, Jan. 15 through 20, the nine-person team — led by general surgeon Dr. Agostino Cervone — operated on 67 patients. READ
Dr. Agostino Cervone of Peconic Bay Medical Center jokes that he can tell what kind of surgery a person has had based on the size and location of a scar. In a few years, though, that will become harder to do thanks to the enhancements of laparoscopic surgery. READ