Hospital O’Horán Performs First Robotic Appendix Surgery; Patient Treated Free of Charge

Mérida, Yucatán — A 52-year-old woman from eastern Mérida has become the first patient to undergo robotic appendix surgery at Hospital General Dr. Agustín O’Horán, where officials say the operation was performed at no cost to her.

Alejandra Caballero Góngora arrived at the hospital with fever and severe abdominal pain. Doctors diagnosed acute appendicitis and removed her appendix using the hospital’s robotic surgical system. Two days after the procedure, she was recovering well.

“I didn’t know I was going to be the first one to try it here, but everything turned out fine, so trust it. Goodbye scalpels, hello little robot,” she said.

Caballero said the care she received exceeded her expectations. “They treated me better than at home. The nurses were very attentive and helpful with whatever I needed. The doctor is very kind — he comes over to tell me things and explain them to me. I feel like it’s the level of a private clinic,” she said.

Caballero does not have a steady job, and a procedure of this kind at a private hospital would have been out of her reach. “If I didn’t have this, I wouldn’t be here to tell it,” she said.

52 Robotic Surgeries Since June

Hospital officials said the O’Horán has now performed 52 robotic surgeries since its first one in June 2026, all of them free for the entire population.

The procedures are carried out through small incisions, which means less pain, a faster recovery and an earlier return to daily life. Officials said the system has also helped reduce the hospital’s list of pending operations.

The hospital runs the program with IMSS-Bienestar, the Mexican Social Security Institute’s health service, in coordination with the Yucatán state government, as part of a broader push to strengthen public health care led by Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena.

“Open to the Whole Population”

Jesús Armando Ruvalcaba Velázquez, head of the hospital’s surgery service and a specialist in advanced laparoscopy, said the operation is done through small incisions through which surgical instruments are inserted.

“It is a source of pride that this cutting-edge service is within reach of the entire Yucatecan population — those who have little, those who have nothing and those who have more,” he said. “It is open to the whole population.”