After Teresa Hershey nearly died from complications of a hysterectomy, she wanted future patients to know about the potential dangers of choosing robotic surgery for the operation. In 2013, the California woman added a detailed account of how the robot that operated on her had burned a hole in her bowels to a database maintained by the Food and Drug Administration.
The database is meant to warn the medical community about the risks associated with medical devices. Hershey’s was one of hundreds of similar accounts about the same robotic device.
