Nigerian hospital live tweets open heart surgery on 8-year-old girl

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.

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