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The Voice of the West Valley for 34 years
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November 20, 2019
Meet Abrazo West’s ‘Dr. Robot’ BY TOM SCANLON
West Valley View Associate Editor
NEWS .............. 8 Student dies after being hit by school bus
SPORTS ........ 15 Millennium battles in epic championship
9 DAYS ......... 16 Looking for something to do? Check out the 9 Days a Week calendar
OPINION .......................11 BUSINESS..................... 13 SPORTS ..........................15 FEATURES .....................18 NEIGHBORHOOD......19 YOUTH ...........................23 OBITUARIES .................26 CLASSIFIEDS................27 SOUTH
In the physicians’ lounge at Abrazo West Campus, all Dr. Sushil Pandey did was press a button on a machine. His hot chocolate was mixed inside the machine and poured into a waiting cup, perfectly delivered. Some day, his colorectal surgeries will be just as easy. “Absolutely,” he answered when asked if fully-automated surgery is coming. “It’s like a self-driving car: It’s going to happen. “This is the future.” Until a “Dr. Robot” comes along, Pandey will continue to work with machines, using robotics in the surgery room. As he will at the Surgical Robotics Showcase Thursday, Nov. 21, from noon to 3 p.m., Pandy demonstrated how he uses robotic technology. For the demonstration, instead of a live patient, a plastic torso - dubbed “Fred” by hospital staff - lies on the operation table. Four long arms of a machine are inserted into holes in the plastic torso. If this were an actual patient, Pandey would surgically create those four small holes. During two- to three-hour procedures,
Dr. Sushil Pandey has done scores of operations with the DaVinci Xi, which allows him to use robotics to ease complicated surgeries.. (West Valley View photo by Tom Scanlon)
the robotic machines help him to noninvasively complete his surgeries, while never having to physically touch his patient. He sits in front of a video monitor in the corner of the surgery room, about 10 feet
from the operating table. Using two fingers of each hand and a foot pedal, Pandey operates the machine “hands,” separating intestines,
Robot...continued on page 2
Retired cop pens gritty crime novel BY TOM SCANLON
West Valley View Associate Editor
Jesus “El Lobo” Gomez is one bad dude. Muscular and menacing, he rules his gang with terror, dominates his “homies”, terrorizes his neighbors, sells drugs and steals from helpless migrants to support his nefarious ways, murders without blinking. Terrance “Terry” Donegan is a peace-loving family man. Softspoken and Teddy bear-shaped, he retired from a long, stable career, enjoys volunteering to help others, married for 35 years and is a father and grandfather. El Lobo is a cop killer. Terry was a cop.
Terrance Donegan spiced up his retirement — and ticked a big item off his “before-I-die” list — by writing “El Lobo Phoenix.” The novel is as dirty and frightening as Donegan’s Avondale home is tidy and quiet. Lisa Donegan, his wife of 35 years, shook her head and chuckled when asked about her husband being a writer. “I never knew he had it in him,” she said. It was a hot, muggy night, but most of the neighborhood residents were inside behind locked doors and closed windows, as the Westside Eleventh Avenue gang members
Gritty...continued on page 6
Terrance Donegan, a retired police officer-turned-writer, has lived in Avondale since 1994. (West Valley View photo by Tom Scanlon)