Robots helping our surgeons work with precision
When 62‑year‑old former painter and father of two Chris Lynch returned to St Bartholomew’s Hospital for lung‑cancer surgery, he already knew he was in safe hands. Two years earlier, surgeons at the same hospital had removed a tumour from his right lung. Now another had been found on the left — and Miss Henrietta Wilson, one of Europe’s foremost robotic thoracic surgeons, would be operating.
Henrietta has been a surgeon at Barts for eight years, specialising in minimally invasive procedures. As she explains in the series, “The anatomy within the chest is beautiful. I fell in love with it straight away.”
Chris’s story appears in episode two of Our Hospital Through Time, which explores how Barts has progressed from centuries‑old surgical techniques to some of the most advanced technology in use today.
Henrietta performs the procedure using the Da Vinci robotic surgical system, which allows her to work through tiny incisions using highly precise, wrist‑like instruments. In the episode, she gives presenter Alice Roberts a playful demonstration using half a pepper, challenging her to pick out individual seeds with the robot’s arms — a simple way to show how controlled and delicate the system can be.
Chris’s real operation was far more complex. His tumour lay deep within the lung, and over several hours Henrietta worked carefully to locate and remove it. Thanks to the accuracy of robotic surgery, Chris was left with only four small scars — and by the following day, he was already preparing to go home.
Henrietta sums up the value of the technology in the episode: “It’s in the harder operations where the robot earns its money.”
Robotic surgery is now used across Barts Health for an increasing range of procedures. Patients typically experience less bleeding, reduced pain and faster healing — often allowing them to leave hospital much sooner than with traditional surgery. The programme has recently expanded to more hospitals across the Trust, including Whipps Cross.
The continued development of robotic surgery at Barts has been supported by Barts Charity, whose funding since 2017 has helped establish and grow the Trust’s comprehensive robotic programme.
Reflecting on her practice session with the pepper, Alice Roberts says: “We’re not talking about replacing humans with robots, we’re extending the surgeon’s abilities, and that’s better for everybody.”
Catch up on Alice Roberts: Our Hospital Through Time Season 1
In other news