houstonhospital
Open heart surgery: The lead surgeon took some footage with a helmet cam during the Twittercast
KOMPAS.com - Those who have always thought they'd make a brilliant surgeon after playing Operation may think again... after doctors revealed exactly what goes on during open-heart surgery on Twitter.
A team from Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital posted tweets, pictures, and video clips during the routine coronary bypass on Tuesday morning. Some of the footage was taken by Dr Michael Macris, who led the procedure on the 57-year-old male patient while wearing a helmet cam.
The first tweet read: 'Warning: Content may be graphic' and users needed a strong stomach to view some of the following posts. Many of the messages were a little alarming, such as: 'Dr Macris opened patient’s chest with knife, bovie, then saw.'
Other tweets only made sense to those with a medical degree, such as: 'Once saphenous vein is harvested it is further prepared for use.' However, they also included interesting snippets of information about the heart - which they revealed is the size of a clenched fist and weighs between seven and 15oz.
The hospital in Houston broadcast the first live coverage via Twitter of a beating open-heart surgery in the U.S. as part of Heart Month. Interested users who managed to stay the course could also ask team-member Dr Paresh Patel questions during the operation.
Luckily everything went to plan and there were no complications. The patient is expected to recover within a week. To see the first open-heart surgery Twittercast in full visit http://www.memorialhermann.org/locations/northwest/heartandvascular/live-tweet-heart-surgery/.
