It’s well documented; a colonoscopy is one of the only procedures in the medical field that can not only detect cancer but prevent cancer.

That’s by finding and removing questionable polyps before they become cancerous if you catch them early enough.

Mary Dunn is looking and feeling healthy today.

Part of that is because of a surgery she had in January at Memorial Hospital.

This significant procedure removed a troubling part of her colon about which her doctors were becoming very concerned.

“That lesion was coming back over and over again, and it was large enough to be of clinical concern that it would turn into cancer and so nipping that thing in the bud and then having a great outcome is really what we were shooting for,” said Dr. Daniel Srikureja.

Dr. Daniel Srikureja is the surgeon who performed the procedure using the da Vinci surgical system.

He was able to remove a section of colon wrapped around her stomach where those troubling polyps kept coming back.

“We are able to make much smaller incisions and do everything that we would normally go through a large, you know, 15-inch incision through a small 3/8 of an inch incision and people are getting better much quicker,” said Srikureja.

Perhaps even more importantly, this Beacon medical doctor is one of the few if not the only in the area who is also able to use da Vinci to connect the two healthy sections of colon together inside the abdominal cavity using that very small incision.

Traditional surgeries like this actually require that part of the procedure to be performed outside the body.

The use of the da Vinci and the skill of the team brought about not only a successful surgery but a much easier and quicker recovery for Mary.

“I had this vision that for four weeks, I was going to be at home basically reading and watching tv. After two weeks, you know, I was out driving a little bit (you were good to go) I was out driving a little bit,” said Mary Dunn.

Mary was born in Niles but lived most of her adult life in northern Wisconsin. Now that she’s back she says she’s grateful to have access to doctors and technologies usually associated with larger cities and academic institutions.

“When you have these advanced technologies that is just an extra plus the staff for the doctors who are trained to do these procedures,” said Dunn.

These types of surgeries using the smaller incisions usually cut the post-op hospital stay by at least 30 percent if not more.

Since cancer runs in Mary’s family and her father died from colon cancer at the age of 52, she still must get a colonoscopy once every three years.

That’s a far cry from the worry and hassle before the surgery of getting one every 6 months. And by the way that section removed turned out to be benign, but most importantly is now out of her body where it can do no harm.