mason started showing symptoms of his illness when he was around 14 it was the beginning of his
freshman years playing on the high school soccer team he just kept complaining of abdominal pain
which you know it's kind of a vague symptom and we let it go for a while but then it
kind of progressed he came home one day from practicing i had to stop i got sick i vomited
so then i was like okay this is maybe a little more so we started
investigating and the gi specialist called us we found out he has malls median arcua ligament
syndrome and she said it's where a ligament in the abdomen compresses the celiac artery
and so they referred us to dr dieffenbach for the surgery then press and hold the targeting button
using a robot to carry out an operation is definitely different than the other forms of
minimally invasive surgery the most notable of which is the operating surgeon is not actually
standing at the operating table instead the operating surgeon is sitting in a computerized
console that allows them to see the operative field with high fidelity three-dimensional imaging
it did put my mind at ease to know that that was an option for him
because of the surgery being around the abdominal
aorta i was glad that there was going to be some very fine-tuned efforts around that
it was definitely a nervous day for us all but his abdomen looked great i think it
was like five incision spots but they were really small i'm all about it let's do it
nationwide children's has done a phenomenal job incorporating and using robotic technology to
help carry out a number of complex operations that would otherwise not have been possible
using minimally invasive technology we've really become one of the leaders in the country now
because we have a full spectrum of surgical intervention meaning that we have pediatric
urologists as well as pediatric general and thoracic surgeons now utilizing the robot with
a broad spectrum of cases that really has set us apart from most other institutions in the united
states i felt like his recovery was very rapid like he was back to himself within two weeks
i felt great you know i was able to do everything that i could i was able to wolf food down at the
table and not experience anything afterwards i'd like to keep playing soccer but kind of
just focusing on school right now waiting to see what my plans might be in the future it's such a
relief that he's able to do everything he wants to do i'm his biggest fan you know i'm his mom
you