The SideshowHospital live-tweets brain surgery
Late last month, the National Zoo live-tweeted the artificial insemination of a giant panda, providing a startlingly vivid play-by-play of the procedure.
Not to be outdone, a hospital in Houston used its Twitter feed on Wednesday to live-tweet a human brain surgery--and it was just as graphic.
"WARNING," a message on Memorial Hermann Hospital's Twitter feed read. "The contents of this #brain #surgery may be GRAPHIC in NATURE."
No kidding.
Dr. Scott Shepard, a neurosurgeon at Texas Medical Center, described the three-plus hour surgery--performed by Dr. Dong Kim on a 21-year-old female patient to remove a brain tumor--in a series of informative yet stomach-turning tweets:
Dr. Kim begins drilling into the #skull with a perforator, making several small holes. #MHbrain STAND BY for VIDEO...
Here is a small sample:
Dr. Kim now lifts this portion of the skull exposing the membrane underneath called the dura. #MHbrain
Dr. Kim uses a little knife to cut between the 2 veins. This is called the cortisectomy.
The bone flap is then handed to the surgical nurse to keep it sterile during surgery.
The feed included plenty of photos:
And video:
Even a Pinterest pin!
The surgery appears to have been successful:
Dr. Kim just went to see the patient. "We had a nice conversation and she looks great!" - Dr. Dong Kim
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