DALLAS – Children’s Medical Center in Dallas became the first hospital to Twitter in real-time from a transplant surgery.
The 483-bed hospital used Twitter to provide updates as Chris Gilbreath, a firefighter from Sherman, Texas, gave his left kidney to his 3-year-old son John.
Children’s is part of a growing trend among hospitals to use social networking to connect with patients and their families. The hospital has a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and a blog, called “From The Red Balloon,” which it launched in April.
John was born with a condition called posterior urethral valves (PUV) that compromised his kidney function and has had to have nightly 10-hour sessions of peritoneal dialysis since his birth.
Until his surgery John was living without either of his kidneys. In February he had his left one removed and then in April his right. He had been on the kidney transplant waiting list but his status went inactive when it was determined that he had to have both kidneys removed, his mother Amanda Gilbreath said.
Representatives from the public relations department at Children’s- where John’s surgery was performed and at UT Southwestern (part of The University of Texas System), where his father’s was performed twittered live from both sites.
Staff tweeted that both surgeries went well and that “John is on his way to being a healthy, happy three-year old.”
According to staff every 13 minutes a new name is added to the transplant waiting list.
“Currently, nearly 85,000 people are on the waiting list for a kidney,” said Jessica Newell, media relations manager at Children’s Medical Center. “We hope that twittering from this surgery will help raise awareness for organ donation, as well as living organ donation.”
“I couldn’t be with both my boys during surgery so it will help me feel connected to Chris’ surgery, which will be about a quarter of a mile away,” Amanda Gilbreath said. “I hope it educates the public about living donations and sparks an interest in others to make a living donation,” she added.
Amanda Gilbreath said the hospital approached her about tweeting the surgery. Although she had heard of Twitter, she said she went home and researched it and became a member.
