Heart transplant live tweet from Baylor Dallas operating room

Baylor Scott & White Health tonight is broadcasting a heart transplant live on Twitter and other social media channels.

The surgery is taking place at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. It is believed to be the first time a heart transplant is being covered live on social media.

The patient, whose real name will not be released, has agreed to allow us to tell her story. The woman, who we will identify with a pseudonym, “Jane,” is from North Texas and is in her 30s. She is married and has one teenage child.

Jane has been living with cardiomyopathy since she was a baby and she’s had health trouble on and off since that time. But in the past year, her heart condition deteriorated to the point where she needed a transplant.

She was put on the transplant waiting list earlier this month. The call she’s been waiting for came early this morning. A matching donor was found.

“When I got the call this morning, I was scared, crying,” she said. “My adrenaline was through the roof. My jaw was shaking.”

“I feel sad for the donor’s family because of the loss they’ll have. It’s so hard for a family to go through that. But I’m so thankful that they donated and it’s a rebirth for my family.”

The surgeon performing today’s transplant is Juan MacHannaford, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon on the medical staff at Baylor Dallas. Also in the operating room to help us tell Jane’s story will be Gonzalo V. Gonzalez-Stawinski, MD, chief of heart transplantation for Baylor Scott & White, and Brian Lima, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon on the medical staff at Baylor Dallas.

The doctors are members of the second largest heart transplant program by volume in the country — and first in Texas — with survival rates that exceed the national average.

You can follow the coverage below or on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other channels using the hashtag #heartTXlive.