Valley Baptist Medical Center is leading the way when it comes to surgery in Brownsville.
For the first time surgeons used a robot to help out with surgery.
"Its fun. I love it," Dr. Jose Nieves was like a kid on Christmas morning, showing off his new toy.
The state of the art robot is a fancy new tool for surgeons at the hospital.
"You're able to do things that are more difficult than using traditional techniques and you're able to do more varieties of procedures," said Nieves.
The robot is made for minimally invasive procedures like hysterectomies and other urological conditions.
"This is a very exciting thing to have," said Nieves.
Doctors say the machine is so much fun to use, its kind of like playing with a video game.
They use controls and look into a lens to see what they are operating on in 3D.
"Its like playing a video game. Its like turning into a little mini surgeon and being inside somebody and being able to do that," said Nieves.
Its the first one for Brownsville but Valley Baptist in Harlingen has been using a similar machine since 2008.
It makes a small incision which amounts to a faster recovery for patients like Wanda Cabrales-Williams.
"I was able to take a shower rather quickly. You always feel better after a shower," Cabrales-Williams.
Doctors in Harlingen used the robot for her hysterectomy and she was back to work in just two weeks, cutting the typical six weeks of recovery way down.
"I was able to get back to my children and back home the next morning versus staying in the hospital two to three days."
With this new machine, Brownsville residents won't have to travel to Harlingen or Houston to get the same high tech treatment.
The price tag on the new robot wasn't cheap.
It cost about $1.7 million dollars.
Valley Baptist in Harlingen also just got an upgrade to their robot.
Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg has one too.
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