Utah hospital uses new robot for head and neck surgeries
Surgeons at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City are now using a new type of robot on people with head and neck cancers.
The Da Vinci SP robotic surgical system is not the first robot the hospital has used. Unlike past Da Vinci models, though, this one has all the instruments come out through a single port.
This allows surgeons, who will control the robot’s actions through their own movements, to get into tighter spaces through smaller incisions and do more precise surgery.
According to Huntsman Cancer Institute Thoracic Surgeon Dr. Brian Mitzman, there’s no increased risk to using a robot for surgery.
The Huntsman Cancer Institute is the first and only hospital in the Mountain West to use this system.
Two incidents at same I-80 location cause slowdowns in Salt Lake County
Two separate incidents on I-80 Wednesday morning caused significant slowdowns in western Salt Lake County.
At around 7 a.m., a vehicle crashed at milepost 105 and blocked one of the westbound lanes, then another vehicle crashed into the first one. There were no reported injuries, but cleanup took time.
Then, mechanical issues forced a Utah Transit Authority bus off the highway on the eastbound side. There were no passengers inside and no injuries were reported.
Both incidents were cleared by 9:30 a.m.
It’s the second time in less than a week that two separate crashes happened at approximately the same time in the same location on opposite sides of a Utah interstate. On Jan. 25, there were two semi-track crashes on opposite sides of I-215 West in Salt Lake City at exactly the same spot.
Lawmaker proposes bills, funding requests for water conservation
One lawmaker is proposing multiple bills and funding requests to conserve water use in the face of drought and a drying Great Salt Lake.
Rep. Doug Owens (D-Millcreek) is asking for $12 million to support an ongoing turf buyback program, which is where local water districts pay people to get rid of lawn they don’t use.
Owens is also seeking $500,000 to launch a voluntary program that would pay farmers to send the water they would use for an extra crop downstream to the Great Salt Lake.
Both funding requests will be considered as part of the overall state budget.
Two bills have been proposed by Owens regarding water conservation: H.B. 11, which would restrict nonfunctional turf in government buildings, and H.B. 401, which restricts when lawn or turf can be irrigated.
H.B. 11 was advanced by the Senate Natural Resources Committee Tuesday with a unanimous vote.
