Wellstar Celebrates National Cancer Survivors Day, Offering Hope to the Community

For the first time, people in Paulding County and nearby communities have access to leading-edge robotic surgery close to home. Wellstar Health System launched a new robotic surgery program at Wellstar Paulding Medical Center.

“We’re thrilled to offer access to game-changing da Vinci robotic surgery at Wellstar Paulding Medical Center for the first time in history,” said Ralph Turner, Wellstar senior vice president and president of Wellstar Paulding Medical Center.

Robotic technology enables surgeons to make highly precise incisions smaller than the human hand can make — as tiny as a keyhole. As a result, people who have robotic surgery typically experience less blood loss, recovery pain and scarring.

“Robotic surgeries are minimally-invasive, which typically means shorter hospital stays and faster recoveries,” said Dr. Beau Dusseault, a urologist who leads the robotics program at Wellstar Paulding Medical Center.

He performed the first robotic surgery at the hospital, assisted by the $1.8 million da Vinci Xi Surgical System, on August 22. Dr. Dusseault has performed more than 440 robotic surgeries for prostate cancer and urinary tract conditions.

Experienced urologists and general surgeons are the first to offer robotic surgery at Wellstar Paulding Medical Center, primarily treating:

• Cancers such as prostate, kidney and bladder cancers
• Conditions in the kidneys, bladder and urinary tract
• Hernias and other conditions that require general surgery

The surgical team named the robot “Rosie,” a reference to the robotic maid from the 1960s sitcom “The Jetsons.” It is one of 14 robotic systems patients can benefit from at nine Wellstar locations.

“While our robotic surgery program is new to Paulding, we have high-volume robotic experience that we are bringing from the other Wellstar hospitals,” Dr. Dusseault added.

Learn more about Wellstar Paulding Medical Center.

Wellstar Health System, one of Georgia’s largest and most integrated health systems, has been ranked in the top 10 Best Workplaces in Health Care™ by Fortune Magazine in the “Large Company” category. 

The Great Place to Work® Trust Index™ Survey results show that 81 percent of employees at Wellstar Health System say it is a great place to work, compared to an average of 57 percent for other U.S.-based companies. Additionally, 88 percent of Wellstar team members feel a sense of pride in accomplishments made at Wellstar.

To determine the Best Workplaces in Health Care list, Great Place to Work analyzed the survey responses of over 161,000 employees from Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies in the healthcare industry. The survey enables employees to share confidential quantitative and qualitative feedback about their organization’s culture by responding to 60 statements on a five-point scale and answering two open-ended questions. Collectively, these statements describe Wellstar’s positive employee experience, defined by high levels of trust, respect, credibility, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.

Learn more about working for Wellstar at careers.wellstar.org.

In 2001, Kathy Knopp had been suffering from terrible headaches. It all came to a head when Christmas Eve came and she could barely move her leg without physically dragging it. That’s when she knew it was time to go to the emergency room. 

Spending Christmas Eve in a hospital waiting room was already not how Kathy thought her day would go, but when the doctor told her she needed emergency brain surgery and that she also had a collapsed lung, she knew what was about to unfold would be one of the most challenging times of her life. 

Kathy spent the next three weeks in the hospital and though that would be difficult on anyone, Kathy shares the care she was given was the best and made a huge difference in her stay. 

“I could not have asked for a finer hospital to care for me and am very thankful for all that the nurses and doctors did to aid in my recovery,” Kathy said. 

After spending three weeks in the hospital, she went straight into rehabilitation for a month, and recovery was not easy. 

Several years later when COVID hit and she had finally recovered, Kathy wanted to do something to give back to the nurses and doctors who did everything to make her long stay in the hospital more comfortable. This inspired Kathy to make something that they could look at every day and find hope. It’s what drove her to donate an original painting titled “The Land of Hope” created by Kathy and her fellow artist friends, Alison Keogler and Katie Kohu. 

Kathy teamed up with the Wellstar Foundation to find the perfect location for her beautiful piece of art, which is now hanging in one of the Family Consultation Rooms at the Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center Emergency Department, where she hopes it will bring peace and comfort to families and hospital staff during stressful times.

We are grateful for Kathy's perseverance and generosity. Learn more about the Wellstar Foundation at wellstar.org/foundation.