Sci-fi surgery as doctor in UK directs robot to remove a prostate in Gibraltar

Briton with cancer operated on by doctor located 1,500 miles away using four-armed robot fitted with 3D camera

The patient was in Gibraltar. The surgeon was in London. The outcome was a remarkable triumph for remote robotic surgery that saved the life of a 62-year-old football fan with prostate cancer.

Inside the operating theatre at St Bernard’s, the only hospital in the British overseas territory, a hi-tech robot with four arms, and fitted with a 3D camera, removed the prostate of Briton Paul Buxton, who moved to Gibraltar 40 years ago.