\u201cIt was like science fiction \u2026 it was unbelievable,\u201d said O\u2019Connell who, before his state police career, had been a respiratory therapist, so was accustomed to what occurred in operating rooms and had witnessed surgery in the past.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell said he recalls going into the operating room the day Gray did the surgery, even being on the gurney rolling down the hallway, having the double doors open up and \u201ctrying to memorize everything; everybody was doing something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a Hollywood production, everybody had a job,\u201d O\u2019Connell said of what the operating room looked like. He said he was told it was about 10 people in the OR at that point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am still blown away, I don\u2019t even think about it,\u201d he said of his lack of symptoms and describing Gray saying after the surgery something along the lines of, \u201cYou got a new heart, we\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n
In part, said O\u2019Connell, who also underwent three months of post operative cardiac rehabilitation at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London<\/a>, the ease of recovery was attributable to the way the robotic surgery can be done. Gray did not have to do a sternotomy<\/a>, which would have meant having his breastbone, or sternum, cut down the center, so it could be spread\u00a0 apart to reach his heart. That would have required more time to recover, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a wonderful process, very little pain,\u201d he said, noting using only Tylenol at some point after the surgery.<\/p>\n Yale New Haven Hospital officials said it is the only hospital in New England that is offering fully endoscopic robotic coronary bypass surgery.<\/p>\n Gray, director of cardiothoracic transplant at Yale New Haven and assistant professor of cardiac surgery at Yale School of Medicine<\/a>, said that when patients get coronary blockages, known through symptoms, testing, or a heart attack, one of more of those coronary vessels is blocked by calcium or cholesterol plaque<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to have them fixed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Gray said robotic surgery is not new, but that not many have found their way to robotic cardiac surgery. Using it makes the surgery less invasive, she said.<\/p>\n Gray said she had had extensive experience with robotic surgery, so it was very intuitive to merge minimally invasive cardiac surgery techniques with the robot. What very few people are doing is called robotic totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting<\/a>, also known as TECAB, she said.<\/p>\n This kind of minimally invasive surgical procedure is used \u201cto treat coronary artery disease by bypassing blocked coronary arteries,\u201d according to Yale Medicine.<\/a> In particular, the surgery is done through \u201csmall incisions, resulting in reduced recovery time and less postoperative pain compared to traditional open-heart surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had the good fortune of having the right kind of training, not everybody has access to that kind of training,\u201d Gray said. \u201cIt is a really advanced surgical tool; really it helps the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Yale](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ZRN6EPW43JGC7ODBK3EKUFXQVY.jpg\")
Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn.<\/p>\n