Getting back on your feet after knee surgery can take weeks, until now.  Thanks to a new procedure, recovery time has been cut down to less than a day. 

This procedure is done in only five hospitals around the world, including in the Foundation Surgical Hospital in Houston where some of the first patients have already gone under the knife.

Sixteen days ago Susan Hemminger couldn’t even walk on a golf course because she suffered from Osteoarthritis.

It was anguish for her to endure this.

“Very painful for my leg because I had such a terrible limp and it stayed bent,” Hemminger said.

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Now she is not only walking, but playing some golf too.

If you think a 16 day recovery is good, imagine walking less than 24 hours after having major knee surgery.

“Look mom, no crutches,” said Hemminger in a video taken by the hospital that treated her.

She is walking less than 24 hours after surgery.

But Hemminger’s unconventional recovery has an unconventional surgeon, a robot.

“The surgeon still holds the robot and guides it,” Dr. Stefan Kreuzer explained.

But the robot is in control.The robot creates a virtual wall around the area of the bone that needs to be replaced making every surgical move error proof.  During the surgery, surgeons can see the affected area at the CAT scan level shown on monitors.  If the surgeon tries to go outside that virtual wall the robot shuts off.

“I couldn’t even go too far because the robot would stop and it has other checks in case something moves. Then the robot automatically shuts off,” Dr. Kreuzer said.

An 84-year-old man who underwent this procedure Wednesday was seen jumping into his pickup truck the next day.

“It’s amazing that they reach a range of motion almost immediately after the surgery,” said Dr. Kreuzer

For Susan Hemminger it’s about more than just moving her knee. It’s about getting her life back.

“Every day it gets better.  It’s amazing,” she said.