Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston to live tweet brain tumor surgery
(CBS News) Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston plans to live tweet brain surgery today. Under the Twitter handle @houstonhospital, the hospital will provide a "rabid play-by-play" removal of a brain tumor for about four hours using the hashtag #MHbrain on Wednesday, May 9 from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CT.
The surgery will be led by Dr. Dong Kim, neurosurgeon and Director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute in Houston. Dr. Kim was the neurosurgeon who oversaw Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' care at the hospital after she was shot in the head in January 2011.
Medical personnel will live tweet all the steps of the tumor removal procedure, including prep, removal of the bone flap, resection of the brain tumor and closing of the surgical site. In addition to tweets, users will see pictures and videos live via Dr. Kim's microscope video feed. The first incision is expected to start at 9:00 a.m. CT (10:00 a.m. ET).
"What will come out of this is a detailed, real-time sequence of what happens in a brain surgery through all the stages from preparation, to shaving the hair, to making the incision, to draping," Dr. Kim told Mashable. "People are very anxious and want to know what goes on in a brain surgery like this."
Dr. Scott Shepard, a brain tumor specialist at the hospital and Director of the Gamma Knife Radiosurgery program will respond to questions online from outside the operating room during the Twittercast.
Natalie Camarata, Memorial Hermann's digital marketing manager, told Mashable the hospital decided to live tweet brain surgery following a successful live tweeting of open-heart surgery several weeks earlier, which was viewed an estimated 125 million times through Twitter and other platforms.
According to Mashable, video clips from the surgery will be posted to YouTube, photos will be shared on Pinterest, and recaps of each hour of the surgery will be available on Storify.
To find out more, visit Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.
