Michael, Kathy, Glen, Gabrielle, Alden and Kathleen Snajder. Missing: Amanda.

A 42-year-old Monroe father of five learnsthat having colon surgery isn’t as bad as it sounds—when it’s done as a minimally invasive procedure at Bridgeport Hospital.

S omething wasn’t right.

It wasn’t the flu and it wasn’t his appendix (he’d had that out years ago). But the fever, the horrible chills, the abdominal pain (“It sometimes knocked me to the floor!”), the loss of appetite, the exhaustion in a normally healthy man—no, something definitely wasn’t right.

So 42–year-old Glen Snajder went to Bridgeport Hospital’s Emergency Department. A series of tests showed that he had diverticulitis—an infection in his colon. (The colon is the major portion of the large intestine.) Intravenous antibiotics and four days in the hospital brought the fever down, and Glen went home thinking, “Well, I’ll watch my diet, eat more fiber, and that will be that.”

During his initial stay at Bridgeport Hospital, Glen was treated by Gregory Soloway, MD, a gastroenterologist (specialist in diseases of the digestive tract). In a follow-up procedure a few months later, Dr. Soloway performed a colonoscopy (a procedure that involves sliding a slim tube with a camera up into the colon so the doctor can see what’s going on inside).

“I could see that his lower colon was quite thickened and abnormal-looking,” says Dr. Soloway, “but he seemed to be progressing well.” A round of antibiotics helped.

However, diverticulitis in a man as young as Glen is cause for watchful concern. It’s usually a disease of people over age 50. When found in younger people, it’s a much more aggressive condition. And Glen’s condition was aggressive. After his third attack of diverticulitis, and third round of antibiotics, in a four-month period, Dr. Soloway determined that the diverticulitis had become chronic. He recommended that Glen consider having the diseased section of his colon removed—and that he have it done before his disease progressed to the point where emergency surgery was required.

So Glen went to colorectal surgeon Scott Thornton, MD, for consultation.

Dr. Thornton had the proverbial bad news and good news. Glen really did need to have about a foot of diseased colon removed — but there was a way to do it without having to open up his abdomen. Instead of a long abdominal scar, minimally invasive surgery would involve only three small incisions.

Glen’s point of view: “If you can have the minimally invasive procedure done by an expert, with smaller scars, less pain, a shorter hospital stay and a quicker recovery— well, why wouldn’t you?”

Glen came to Bridgeport Hospital on June 26, 2006, for surgery. While expert anesthesiologist Amarjit Lamba, MD, monitored Glen’s breathing and oxygen levels, Dr. Thornton made two incisions in Glen’s lower abdomen, plus a third in Glen’s navel through which he inserted a miniature camera.

“Because the camera presents a magnified view, I can see even better than with the naked eye,” he explains.

As is true for all surgeries, surgeons and anesthesiologists work in close partnership during minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery.