Daniel McNeely, MD, a neurosurgeon at IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Canada, sent out his first tweet Sept. 30 and became famous after the post went viral, according to Good News Network.
Here are five things to know:
1. Dr. McNeely's tweet featured a photo of him performing "surgery" on an 8-year-old patient's teddy bear. The patient was scheduled for a brain cyst removal.
2. The patient arrived at the hospital with the teddy bear and asked Dr. McNeely to perform surgery for it, and Dr. McNeelywent so far as to ask his nurses to set out an extra table and tools for the toy. Dr. McNeely operated on an "injury" to the bear's arm, using leftover stitches from the patient's surgery.
3. After the procedure, Dr. McNeely asked his nurses to take a photo of the bear and he posted it to Twitter with the caption: "Patient asks if I can also fix teddy bear just before being put off to sleep…how could I say no?" It was the first time Dr. McNeely had "operated" on a toy.
4. After sending out the tweet, Dr. McNeely gained thousands of followers and had articles published about him in USA Today, BBC, People and several other news outlets.
5. As of Oct. 7, the post received 18,236 re-tweets, 837 comments and 40,617 likes. Dr. McNeely hopes to highlight how healthcare professionals can go the extra mile to make patients feel comfortable before surgery.