Сompany Navigantis has just reached an exciting milestone in their mission to save lives with robots. Their special robot, named VASCO, has successfully helped doctors perform brain surgeries for the first time. This breakthrough could change how quickly people get life-saving treatment for strokes and other serious brain problems.

Think about this: every 40 seconds, someone in America has a stroke. That's about as often as you might check your phone. When a stroke happens, getting help quickly is incredibly important. If doctors can treat a patient within two hours, that person has an excellent chance - about 90% - of getting back to their normal life. But wait just four more hours, and those chances drop dramatically to only 30%.

"We want to use robots to help more people get treatment faster," says Mor Dayan, who leads Navigantis. The big problem right now is that many people, especially those living far from big cities, can't get to a specialist doctor quickly enough when they have a stroke. That's where VASCO comes in.

The robot recently helped doctors do three different types of brain procedures: taking detailed pictures of blood vessels in the brain, treating brain tumors, and removing blood clots that cause strokes. These are all very delicate procedures that normally require highly skilled specialists.

One of the coolest things about this robot is that it might eventually allow doctors to treat patients from far away, almost like playing a very sophisticated video game - except this one saves lives. Imagine a specialist in New York being able to treat a stroke patient in a small town hundreds of miles away, all through controlling the robot.

Professor Dong Joon Kim, a doctor in South Korea who led these first procedures, is excited about what this means for the future. "This is just the beginning," he says. "We can now start working on even more complex brain treatments using robots."

The robot also helps solve another problem: it reduces the amount of radiation that doctors and nurses are exposed to during these procedures. Usually, they need to use X-rays to see inside the brain while they work, which means being exposed to radiation regularly. With VASCO, they can control the robot from a safer distance.

Navigantis, the company that created VASCO, is quite young - they only started in 2022. But they're moving fast. They've already received $12 million from investors who believe in their vision. Before working on brain procedures, they successfully tested their robot on liver treatments, showing that they're carefully building up to more complex operations.

It's important to note that VASCO is still being tested and hasn't been approved for regular use in hospitals yet. It needs to pass many safety checks before doctors can use it widely. But the early results are promising.

The bigger picture here is about more than just fancy technology - it's about giving everyone a fair chance at survival when they have a stroke, no matter where they live. Right now, many Americans, especially those in rural areas, don't have quick access to the specialists they need. Robots like VASCO could help change that by bringing expert care to places that otherwise wouldn't have it.

As medical robots continue to develop, they could transform how we treat some of our most serious health problems. While they won't replace doctors, they might help those doctors reach and treat many more patients than ever before. And in emergencies like strokes, where every minute counts, that could make the difference between life and death.