September 28, 2011 (MILWAUKEE) (WLS) — Operating rooms are usually closed to the public, but Twitter has opened that door.
A man in Milwaukee who has epilepsy was frustrated because his medication wasn’t working and he was suffering from seizures. So he underwent brain surgery.
The hospital’s social media manager sat in the operating room, tweeting live during the entire procedure. The patient was awake, so he could give doctors feedback about the operation.
Thousands of Twitter followers watched, even asking their own questions throughout the process.
(Copyright ©2011 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Geoffrey Nestor underwent brain surgery in order to minimize the impact that epilepsy has on his life.
What was unique was that thousands of people were able to get live updates from the operating room on Twitter and on WISN.com.
“I have to admit I’m not a big social media person myself,” said Dr. Shekhar Dagim, the neurosurgeon who participated in the surgery. “I’m in the age range where I’m not really into Facebook and things, but I think it’s got a great usefulness.
Dagim and Dr. George Morris led the team that performed the surgery, and fed the information to Aurora Health Care’s social media team in charge of the tweeting.
While the full results of the surgery may not be felt by Nestor for a few months, Dagim believes the surgery was a success both in the operating room and on the Internet.
Sources: http://www.wisn.com/health/29330362/detail.html#ixzz1ZLVU476o , http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/health&id=8371141
