Eugene Allen, a retired police officer and teacher from Sicklerville, N.J., had a decision to make in February, after an MRI revealed a precancerous cyst in his pancreas. It had to be removed, but the question was how? The active 60-year-old wanted to get back to the long walks with his dog and taking care of his in ground pool. He could go the traditional surgery route to remove the cyst or he could be the first patient at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital to have a surgeon perform a distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy with the da Vinci robot.
