Woman live streams brain surgery on Facebook

Top Stories

Facebook, brain surgery, live stream, Jenna Schardt,

Texas - Schardt, who is studying masters, said the live-streaming could help to raise awareness.

By Web Report

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Fri 1 Nov 2019, 10:12 AM

Last updated: Fri 1 Nov 2019, 12:20 PM

A 25-year-old Texas woman allowed her brain surgery to be live-streamed on Facebook while she was awake.
Jenna Schardt, who is an occupational therapy student, said the live-streaming would be educational and could help raise awareness.
Schardt underwent brain surgery to remove a mass of blood vessels in her brain that was affecting her speech. Thousands of people tuned into watch the live feed as surgeons at Methodist Dallas Medical Center operated upon Schardt around 11:45 am on Tuesday.
The live-stream began after doctors cut into Schardt's skull and reached her brain, which does not have any pain receptors, and then woke her.
A technician showed the woman images on an iPad and asked her to speak basic words to ensure important parts of her brain weren't adversely affected during the surgery, reported Fox News.

"We have a GPS tracking system for the brain, and we need to find the places we need to avoid," Dr. Nimesh Patel, the hospital's chief of neurosurgery, said during the live-stream, which lasted roughly 45 minutes. Dr. Patel also took viewers' questions live. Surgeons Dr. Randall Graham and Dr. Bartley Mitchell removed the lesion from Schardt's brain. "It went very smooth. As expected, no problems came up. She handled it really, really well. When she woke up, she was really interactive. Her personality actually kept coming through," CNN quoted Dr. Graham as saying.
Schardt, who is studying masters in occupational therapy at Brenau University in Georgia, was suddenly was unable to speak while talking to colleagues at work. "All of a sudden, during the middle of a conversation, I just couldn't speak any more," Schardt said in a Facebook video posted prior to her surgery in Dallas.


More news from