If you've ever wondered what it looks like inside an operating room, but didn't want to go the medical school route, Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital is offering you an alternative this morning. The medical and research institution is live tweeting an open heart surgery (at #SBHeart) for 57-year-old patient Lou as a way to educate the public about heart disease, according to the hospital's spokesperson.
Technically known as a coronary artery bypass graft, or CABG, the surgery is being performed Dr. Gideon Cohen, while the tweeting (and responses to the public) is being done by the social media team. CABGs are carried out in order to improve blood circulation in the heart, usually after arteries have hardened or narrowed to a point that is life-threatening, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Sunnybrook isn't the first hospital to do put a surgery on social media — in 2012, Houston's Memorial Hermann Northwest also had a doctor live tweet a heart surgery (that another doctor performed), as well as answer the public's questions, Time magazine reports.
But advances in social media have allowed this particular surgery to take on very intimate moments, including videos of a heart beating, photos of Lou's angiogram, and yes, even noting what kind of music the doctors are listening to:
Take a look at some of these tweets, and don't worry if you missed the live tweeting — the event will be archived at www.sunnybrook.ca/Sbheart.
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