Israeli hospital airs live brain surgeries on Facebook

A hospital in southern Israel drew more than half a million viewers on Facebook on Tuesday with live broadcasts of brain surgeries taking place at the facility.

Facebook visitors have continued to watch and share the videos at Soroka Medical Center on the social networking site in the hours since the surgeries.

The videos were screened on the Facebook page of Clalit, one of Israel’s four health care networks. Soroka, the only major medical center in the Negev region and serving more than 1 million people, is a Clalit hospital.

In one of the procedures screened, doctors successfully removed a benign tumor from a woman in her 50s, during a three-hour operation.

The patient is now recovering at the hospital.

The patient agreed to be filmed to help the public to learn about the work of doctors at Soroka and its recently opened brain center, according to a hospital spokesman.

The surgeries were screened in conjunction with the Israel Healthcare Foundation, a US-based not-for-profit organization that promotes the national health needs of Israel.