KALAMAZOO — Inga Springman is no stranger to the operating room.

The 40-year-old native of Ukraine and mother of four has had 11 operations, including four C-sections, a double mastectomy and, number 11, a hysterectomy. Inga had her hysterectomy Dec. 19 – her son Jaden’s 10th birthday. She was home the same day, in time to do a little laundry and help her son celebrate.

The secret to her speedy recovery? Inga was the first patient in southwest Michigan to undergo a new robotic hysterectomy that requires a single tiny incision next to the bellybutton. The surgery was performed at Borgess Medical Center by Anna Hoekstra, MD, a gynecologic oncologist at the West Michigan Cancer Center, and other members of the Borgess Robotic Surgery Program.

“My 11th surgery was by far the easiest,” Inga said. “I didn’t even need much pain medication after the first few days. By a week after the surgery, I was back at the gym.”

Dr. Hoekstra performed what is called a full prophylactic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO), removing the uterus, fallopian tubes, cervix and ovaries through the vagina. It doesn’t carry the added risk of minimally invasive laparoscopic hysterectomy surgery, which requires four small incisions to remove the ovaries and uterus.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, single-site robotic hysterectomy offers the traditional advantages of minimally invasive surgery. Other advantages include shorter hospital stays and recovery times, smaller incisions, and less pain and blood loss.

The procedure, in addition, provides the added benefit of a single incision, so women are left with only one, almost invisible scar hidden in the navel.

”Single-site instruments used with our robotic platform are the next step in the evolution of surgical technologies,” said Debra Thompson, administrative director, Borgess Surgical Services. “Our team is excited to be a leader in this new surgical frontier.

“Most importantly,” Thompson said, “we always try to exceed patient expectations. Like other new minimally invasive and robotic procedures we now offer, the single-site incision hysterectomy allows patients to receive the care they need and return home sooner with a shorter recovery time.”

“This was like divine intervention for me,” Springman said. “Everything went well in the surgery and Dr. Hoekstra told me that she didn’t even need to do a biopsy. She didn’t need to take any other tissue samples in addition to what she was already planning to remove.

“You can’t even tell that I had surgery. I’m so happy with it.”

For more information on single-site hysterectomy at Borgess Medical Center, please call 269-226-8106.

To read Inga’s story, visit thatswhere.com.