On the day when twitter is big news for the war waged by obese passenger Kevin Smith against Southwest Airlines, another more intriguing tweet was sent by CNN medical correspondent and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta to his 1,206,114 followers. He posted a photo he shot and labeled it “medical mystery. any idea on what you are looking at, and what the abnormality is?”, and he invited his followers to venture a guess.
Image uploaded to twitter by Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Readers responded immediately. Some seemed to have a basic understanding of anatomy and health disorders:
“Is it scoliosis??” asked reader Mbrodis.
Rcpgirl added “Not sure. severe spinal deformity but very curious please tell us soon”.
Gupta was one of the first journalists to arrive in Haiti after the earthquake January 12th and quickly excelled at his dual roles as correspondent and neurosurgeon. After a few days back home with his wife and three young children, on February 6th he tweeted the following:
“think it’s time to go back to haiti. can’t forget what is happening there. must maintain dedicated focus. convincing my wife to let me go.
The next day came the answer:
Approval granted from wife. en route to haiti tonite. she said she wishes she could go as well –to help. 3 daughters 4 and under need her.
Since Gupta has wings on his feet, it’s hard to say if the photo came from Haiti or the U.S. but it’s easy to get caught up in his mission.
As for that odd photo, when you think twitter members are just teenagers, tech geeks or fans of Ashton Kutcher, you get responses like this:
From yasmeenrauf: “mri c spine, sagittal view. type 2, c2 fracture. congenital c4-5 fusion. multi level spondylosis with cervical stenosis at c3-4, c4-5, c5-6 & c6-7. code signal change extending between c4-c5.
Imdrwell wrote: “ipsilateral compression deformities of cervical spines, but intact spinal cord”
“Patient moved during MRI,causing appearance of fluid image? Cerebellum appears to have “bled” through foramen magnum. Perhaps a compression injury, force from top of head downward…” That was posted by tdg31.
SheiladowningRN: Klippel-Fiel Syndrome. Ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL), cord edema.
I draw a number of conclusions from this. First, unless these comments are fake, there are some real brainiacs on this social network.
Second, never judge a user’s intelligence by their user name. Who ever thought someone calling themselves JokerOracle knew this?:
“Odontoid fx, multilevel spondylosis with spinal stenosis (max at C3-4), cord contusion at C4-5, hyperflexion injury, prevertebral edema”.
And lastly, there is enormous potential for the sharing of information on a site like this and Gupta knows how to work it. It’s not entirely clear he was stumped and looking for help with a diagnosis; he may have used the film as a pop med quiz, but I don’t think so. I think he wants sincere input.
I’d love to help the guy, but like most of his followers, I can only sit on the sidelines for this one. Like Seemasugandh : “Fun game… thnx for posting it. 
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Maureen, promised I read all your post but my attention was stopped on the first line…as I work for a french airline. Obese passengers is a real issue even in France !!!! Since we keep an eye on what happened in the US about passenger’s rights I like to be aware of any case like this because it is most of the time a sign of a change for european passengers’s rights…I’d like to read from you all your point of vue on this subject !!! Thanks
Such an interesting blog today. I’ve been following Dr. Gupta on CNN. He is an amazing human being. My cousins are returning from Hatia today. Anxious to talk to them. Carol
Bonjour Delphine. Yes this is a hot topic in the U.S. right now. I will surely give it some thought and post an article. Thank you for reading all the way from France!
Carol thank you. Yes, Gupta is really something. Best to your cousins returning to U.S. soil.