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Twitter surgery:  Sophie’s Ear

From: GHS Sophie with mom and dad heading into surgery

Greenville Hospital Docs performed surgery Thursday morning, that will give a little girl the gift of hearing in a matter of weeks.  They announced it on Twitter.

Here’s a link to the GHS special page set up to track her surgery.

Here is the first tweet from the operating room :  http://twitter.com/ghs_childrens/status/5257405229

And tweeting out the first picture here:  http://twitter.com/ghs_childrens/statuses/5257575815

(click on any of the pics here to bring them full screen and see more of the shot)

By 9am we’re seeing operating pics of Dr. McElveen pointing to the area of the brain where the implant will allow hearing to take place

And here the Dr. holds the external part of the device.  It will connect to the internal processor by a magnet under Sophie’s scalp.

The device being used is called a Bovie

The pocket where the device is placed is about 6 centimeters by three or four centimeters

Surgical team keeps working, see what the doctor sees on his monitor below.

By 930 am this tweet that surgery is going “extremely well” and they are about a third of the way through.

Monitoring Sophie’s facial nerves, in this tweet, and pic.  GHS says it’s going great.

51 minutes into the surgery they tweet out a pic of Sophie “excited about getting her new ear”  - taken earlier - as docs continue their work.

This is first live tweeted surgery from GHS they tell us.

Sophie’s new ear now in! 10:05 am.

3 to 4 weeks after surgery they will turn on the device.

Dr. McElveen is now closing at 10:30 am.

Final Tweet surgery complete. Doc’s now speaking with Sophie’s mom and dad 10:39 am

And final pic of a relieved mom and dad, hearing it went well.

Sophie will have her device turned on December 2nd, when she’ll get that miraculous gift, of hearing.

Learn more about Cochlear surgery here.

Sandy Dees with GHS, “It’s vital that children are diagnosed early and receive the appropriate help - whether therapy, hearing aids, etc -  so that they can fully develop their language skills.”

Sophie’s family is urging other families to get their children screened for hearing so any problems can be detected early.