---
title: "Watch a Surgery Robot Operate on a Jack-o’-Lantern"
description: "A team of surgeons from Charlotte, North Carolina have demonstrated new surgery robot technology by carving a jack-o'-lantern and removing its seeds."
date: "2019-10-28"
modified: "2019-10-28"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/robot-surgery-operate-jack-o-lantern"
categories:
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "robot surgery"
  - "robotic surgery"
  - "surgery"
  - "the digest"
---

# Watch a Surgery Robot Operate on a Jack-o’-Lantern

![A team of surgeons from Charlotte, North Carolina have demonstrated new surgery robot technology by carving a jack-o-lantern and removing its seeds.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/surgery-robot-operate-jack-o-lantern.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Courtesy of WBTV\</em\>*

## Carving Pumpkins

Halloween came early at Atrium Health, a hospital in North Carolina.

A team of surgeons from Charlotte, North Carolina have demonstrated new robotic surgeon technology by carving a jack-o'-lantern, [according to local news station *WBTV*](<https://www.wbtv.com/2019/10/25/atrium-health-surgeons-demonstrate-use-robots-surgery-jack-o-lantern/>). The team treated the seeds inside the pumpkin as tumors and carefully excised them one by one.

The robot surgeon wasn't de-seeding the pumpkin autonomously — human surgeons were in full control of the robot's movement throughout the procedure.

https://youtu.be/mjbgd8U5Bec

## Spooky Surgery

There are numerous advantages to having a robot perform surgeries instead of a human surgeon.

"It’s much more accurate, takes away the tremors, you can suture with much thinner sutures, as thin as a human hair," General Surgeon Vedra Augenstein told *WBTV*.

"The patient would have to have very large incisions and wound complications, and take a lot of pain medicine," she added. "So what we’re trying to do here is minimize all of that and get patients home sooner with much small incisions."

Let's just hope the pumpkin will be able to afford the procedure.

**READ MORE:** [Atrium Health surgeons demonstrate use of robots in surgery on jack-o-lantern](<https://www.wbtv.com/2019/10/25/atrium-health-surgeons-demonstrate-use-robots-surgery-jack-o-lantern/>) \[*WBTV*\]

**More on robot surgery:***[Human Surgeons Are “Barely Trained” on Operating Room Robots](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/surgeons-barely-trained-operating-robots>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)