Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs was the first hospital to try Radial Artery Harvesting, a new technique for coronary bypass patients. Using an endoscope, doctors remove the radial artery from the arm and use it as a bypass artery for the heart. Norm

Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs was the first hospital to try Radial Artery Harvesting, a new technique for coronary bypass patients. Using an endoscope, doctors remove the radial artery from the arm and use it as a bypass artery for the heart. Normally, doctors take veins and arteries from the legs of patients. The new technique allows doctors to make only a small incision at the wrist, insert the endoscope and surgically cut out the artery. The artery goes from about the wrist to the elbow. Prior to the endoscope technique, doctors actually had to make incisions up the entire arm, a much more invasive procedure that left very large scars on patient. ABOVE: Physicians Assistant and Cardio Thoracic Surgeon Matt Bershinsky, right does the actual procedure taking the radial artery out of the patients left arm. There is a small camera in the endoscope, which displays the image on the screen above, which allows Bershinsky to see exactly where the artery is and where he can cut to detach it from the arm. Shannan Donovan, left, is a Certified Surgical Technologist monitors the procedure. The patient who is the reciepient of this new procedure is 69 year old Donald Gutknecht from Colorado Springs. PHOTO BY HELEN H. RICHARDSON (Photo By Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images)