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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- As they play a game of chess, Gabby Gutierrez's parents are just happy to see their daughter laughing, joking and even speaking normally once again.

"She could hardly even move, she was really weak, she couldn't even talk," said Gabby's father, Joel Gutierrez.

"It was like cotton," remembered Gabby's mother, Kathy Gutierrez. "Like stuff was stuffed in her throat."

A persistent sore throat and breathing problems began last spring.

"Trying to talk even, it was excruciating," recalled the 15-year-old.

After several trips to the ER, the family learned gabby had a massive, non-cancerous tumor on the back of her tongue. In early august, UNC hospitals specialists performed robotic oral surgery and removed the tumor.

Now Gabby can finally breathe normally. She said she's eager to join her friends on the soccer field, where she can finally play at full speed.

"I don't even have to worry about taking an inhaler or taking some kind of pill to make me feel better. I can just go out there and be like every other player. So it's really fun."

To celebrate her recovery, Gabby's family took a trip to Chapel Hill so she could meet the doctors and robot that helped save her life.

"The robot really allowed us to remove the whole thing without doing what we would consider to be more of a cancer type operation, where we would have to put incisions on the face, where we would really have to open things up," explained Dr. Carlton Zdanski, Director of North Carolina Children's Airway Center.

The idea of a permanent scar leaves Gabby and her family grateful for the modern technology.

"Mom told me you know they would have had to cut you all the way down if they didn't use the robot. I looked at her, like 'what?'" said the teen.

Gabby, who now fully appreciates the meaning of good health, plans to live her life to the fullest.

"I should do it to 110, 200% because now nothing is in my way."

Doctors believe it’s the first time robotic surgery has been performed orally in a pediatric case. Gabby will travel to Chapel Hill for a final doctor's checkup next week.