A Nigerian hospital has live-tweeted an operation to repair a hole in the heart of an eight-year-old girl. Abuja’s National Hospital posted real-time updates of the girl’s surgical procedure, which lasted around three hours, on the micro-blogging site yesterday.
The aim was to grow awareness of the country’s medical capabilities, hospital spokesperson Dr Tayo Haastrup told CNN. “We have a lot of Nigerians in need of these operations,” said Dr Haastrup.
“This is for them to know it is possible to do it in this country.” Other hospitals have live-tweeted operations before, with an open heart surgery procedure in Houston, Texas, reaching an online audience of 14.5 million.
The operation was the third in a run of ten major heart procedures at the Abuja hospital performed by Nigerian doctors in collaboration with a U.S. charity.
