A CT doctor has rare skills with a robot. It made a difference for a state trooper’s heart surgery

Hartford Courant – Sunday, May 31, 2026
By Helen I. Bennett

Connecticut State Police Trooper Joe O’Connell had already seen his share of health issues when his wife insisted he report to a cardiologist. He would sometimes get a lump in his throat that “kind of takes the gas out of me.”

The lump feeling was odd, however, as it caused no pain and would pass, O’Connell said. But the doctor wanted him to do a stress test anyway, and then an angiogram.

It turned out O’Connell had two clogged coronary arteries. They were found despite having no symptoms and O’Connell staying very active physically, he said.

It was then that O’Connell was referred to Dr. Kelsey Gray of Yale New Haven Hospital, one of about 15 surgeons worldwide who specializes in a certain kind of robotic coronary bypass surgery. That was the surgery O’Connell needed, also known as a TECAB, or a robotic assisted total endoscopic coronary artery bypass. His surgery had two bypass grafts.

“It was like science fiction … it was unbelievable,” said O’Connell who, before his state police career, had been a respiratory therapist, so was accustomed to what occurred in operating rooms and had witnessed surgery in the past.

O’Connell said he recalls going into the operating room the day Gray did the surgery, even being on the gurney rolling down the hallway, having the double doors open up and “trying to memorize everything; everybody was doing something.”

“It was like a Hollywood production, everybody had a job,” O’Connell said of what the operating room looked like. He said he was told it was about 10 people in the OR at that point.

“I am still blown away, I don’t even think about it,” he said of his lack of symptoms and describing Gray saying after the surgery something along the lines of, “You got a new heart, we’re done.”

In part, said O’Connell, who also underwent three months of post operative cardiac rehabilitation at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London, the ease of recovery was attributable to the way the robotic surgery can be done. Gray did not have to do a sternotomy, which would have meant having his breastbone, or sternum, cut down the center, so it could be spread apart to reach his heart. That would have required more time to recover, he said.

“It was a wonderful process, very little pain,” he said, noting using only Tylenol at some point after the surgery.

Yale New Haven Hospital officials said it is the only hospital in New England that is offering fully endoscopic robotic coronary bypass surgery.

Gray, director of cardiothoracic transplant at Yale New Haven and assistant professor of cardiac surgery at Yale School of Medicine, said that when patients get coronary blockages, known through symptoms, testing, or a heart attack, one of more of those coronary vessels is blocked by calcium or cholesterol plaque.

“You need to have them fixed,” she said.

Gray said robotic surgery is not new, but that not many have found their way to robotic cardiac surgery. Using it makes the surgery less invasive, she said.

Gray said she had had extensive experience with robotic surgery, so it was very intuitive to merge minimally invasive cardiac surgery techniques with the robot. What very few people are doing is called robotic totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting, also known as TECAB, she said.

This kind of minimally invasive surgical procedure is used “to treat coronary artery disease by bypassing blocked coronary arteries,” according to Yale Medicine. In particular, the surgery is done through “small incisions, resulting in reduced recovery time and less postoperative pain compared to traditional open-heart surgery.”

“I had the good fortune of having the right kind of training, not everybody has access to that kind of training,” Gray said. “It is a really advanced surgical tool; really it helps the patient.”

Gray said the robot used in the surgery has the instruments that she uses as she operates it from a console to make very small incisions. The camera on it has an advantage because it has magnification and is 3D, she said.

“It is very technical and challenging; the reasons we do it is because it is a great option for the patient,” she said, noting the incisions made are very small, measured in millimeters.

“These are highly specialized tools that are designed to go into someone’s body,” Gray said. She demonstrated using a video how she works around a still beating heart, and how the robot can be manipulated by her to do what needs to be done for the surgery.

The heart continues to beat during surgery, so a heart‑lung bypass machine is not needed.

Ask whether the beating heart “minds” having a doctor work on it, Gray said, “It does mind. You have to practice and be good at it … minimizing how much you are impacting,” she said.

Gray noted that using the patient’s internal mammary artery and attaching it to the left anterior descending artery, or LAD, for the bypass graft, “actually makes you live longer.” She said it is a “very unique blood vessel” in the way it acts and stays open longer, so “it is really a great way to treat a blocked coronary artery.”

Gray said heart surgery using a sternotomy requires a longer and more difficult recovery time. Using the robotic technique means the patients can be home in about three days, driving again after about seven days, back to work and daily activities sooner. “It is entirely for the patient,” she said.

Some people are wary of heart surgery because of missing work and other obligations, so the robotic technique helps the patients, she said.

Gray noted that chest pain and shortness of breath with exertion are symptoms for which people should see a cardiologist so the doctor can look at your coronary arteries to see if you have blockages

Gray said not everyone can have a minimally invasive procedure for coronary disease, but “what is important is that a lot people can have” it and there would be a “very good chance you are a candidate for a minimally invasive approach.”

“There are a lot of people who can probably avoid having a sternotomy,” she said. “I really like to bring the opportunity to more patients, as an alternative to” open sternum surgery.

O’Connell said he watched videos of heart surgery after his was done to understand what Gray wrote in extensive post operative notes. “Everybody wanted to see the scars,” he said, noting how small they are.

Yale New Haven Hospital said the Heart and Vascular Center has done about 50 robotic heart surgeries since the program was relaunched less than a year ago. The work highlights the hospital’s goal to expand its role as a national destination for less invasive heart procedures, officials said.

The health system said, about the rarity of the kind of robot assisted surgery Gray does, that the “highly specialized procedure is performed by fewer than one percent of cardiac surgeons worldwide and is currently offered at a handful of centers. The health system estimated 15 surgeons worldwide have the training and experience required to perform it consistently.”

“The ability to provide this highly advanced procedure highlights the depth of surgical expertise within an academic medical center,” said Dr. Marc Pelletier, chief of cardiac surgery at YNHH, in an email. “It represents both individual excellence and our collective commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in patient‑centered care.”

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