From the archives

ban targets Styrofoam

The week of July 27, 2007, the South San Francisco City Council approved a resolution asking businesses to phase in recyclable food containers instead of Styrofoam forms. The voluntary resolution was to act as an adjustment period for businesses. At the same time, the city planned to begin meeting with businesses and drafting a law. The voluntary ban focuses on polystyrene — a product found in items like take-out containers — which is difficult to recycle.

Sequoia site of

laparoscopic hysterectomy

A Sequoia Hospital surgeon performed the first ever laparoscopic hysterectomy procedure in which no visible scar was left behind the week of July 27, 2007.

RealHand High Dexterity instruments allowed Dr. Kate O’Hanlan to enter the patient’s abdomen through a pre-existing scar — the belly button — so that no additional scars remained on the body. In the past, laparoscopic surgeons have used as many as five incisions to perform the operation.

"It causes the patient less discomfort,” O’Hanlan said of the new procedure, which has been termed a Single Port Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy.

RealHand instruments were designed with minimally invasive surgery in mind. The RealHand High Dexterity technology is designed to mirror the surgeon’s hand direction as well as provide tactile feedback and greater dexterity and precision, according to the Cupertino-based Novare Surgical Systems, which designed the RealHand. When the surgeon’s hand moves in one direction, the tip of the instrument moves in the same direction.

"It’s like having your own hand inside the patient’s abdomen,” said O’Hanlan. "I use the RealHand technology as much as I can. It allows for a lot more precision.”

The hysterectomy was performed in under 65 minutes; O’Hanlan also removed the patient’s appendix during the operation.

Bank robbed at gunpoint

A brazen midday Burlingame bank robbery the week of July 27, 2007 had police looking for two armed men after one jumped over the teller counter and demanded cash — grabbing a "large amount,” according to police.

The suspects dressed all in black and armed with a handgun robbed the Bank of America at 400 El Camino Real at noon on Monday of that week. The men entered the building through the east door and escaped through the same door, according to police.

The man jumped back over the teller’s counter and into the lobby. Both men fled on foot out of the same door they entered.

From the archives highlights stories originally printed five years ago this week. It appears in the Thursday edition of the Daily Journal.