Houston Methodist's state-of-the-art facility could be life-saving for brain and heart patients
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Texas Medical Center is celebrating another first, adding technology that will save the lives of those with brain cancer or heart problems, all under one roof.
The technology is housed in the new Houston Methodist Hospital Walter Tower.
The building was five years in the making. It also has millions of dollars in special technology that you have to see to believe.
Eyewitness News got to step inside the new neurosurgery operating room. It's one of the few places in the world that has virtual reality heads-up displays that let both the doctor and the patient see a tumor that is going to be removed.
With the latest operation tools and this new facility, doctors say they can save the lives of patients that might not have had a good outcome even five years ago.
There's also a new state-of-the-art cardiovascular operating room.
It has a robotic CT imaging arm that can see all around the patient, helping doctors find the precise area they need to work on in the beating heart of the patient.
Only a handful of hospitals have anything close to this technology, and it is the patient who will benefit.
"Unlike before when people came inside, look where the tumor is, we know exactly pre-operation what we need to do, where the tumor is, how we are going to access this surgically and what approach we are going to do," said Methodist Neurosurgeon Dr. Gavin Britz.
The tower has something old to offer as well.
A mosaic was in front of the main Houston Methodist building on Fannin Street. It's called Extending Arms of Christ, and it went up in 1963.
The piece was painstakingly removed and brought to the new building.
The first heart and brain patients will be operated on in the new tower later this month.
