Former patient Larry Grant of Albion, now healthy and home after nine days in the Mendocino Coast District Hospital ICU, right, and James Gude, M.D., a critical care specialist (aka the robot), held a reunion this past Friday.
Dr. Gude, who is located in the Bay Area, was guiding the hospital’s new telemedicine robot a couple of weeks ago when Grant arrived for emergency care, worked with a hospital physician to come up with a treatment plan to keep him from being unnecessarily transported over the hill to another hospital.
It was the first ever use of the new robot to diagnose and treat a local patient. “I was surprised when the robot appeared in my room,” said Grant. “Dr. Gude wanted to know if had ever spoken to a robot before. I said no. Then he asked me questions to help them figure out the problem and what needed to be done. Dr. Gude and everyone in the ER and ICU were wonderful.”