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John Gilbreath with his father, Chris.

TRANSPLANT VIA TWITTER

Gary Reaves reports

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DALLAS — Three-year-old John Gilbreath received a kidney from his firefighting father, Chris, at Children's Medical Center Dallas on Monday.

While the operation is considered routine, it was the first time in the country that a family of a transplant patient will follow the surgery via Twitter, the free social-network messaging system.

Rather than wait for surgeons to finish their work, loved ones received timely updates from hospital staffers posted inside the operating rooms as the procedures unfolded through the morning and early afternoon.

John has no working kidneys of his own; he has spent 10 hours a day hooked up to a dialysis machine. "I would think it would strengthen their bond even more, knowing that your dad made that sacrifice for you," said Amanda Gilbreath, John's mother.

Live Twitter coverage of Chris Gilbreath's surgery began at 6 a.m. with the removal of his left kidney at St. Paul University Hospital at nearby UT Southwestern Medical Center. The organ was removed at 10:04 a.m. as John was prepared to receive it. Less than 10 minutes later, the kidney was in an ice chest on its way to Children's.

Surgeons placed the kidney into John's abdominal cavity at at 11:12; at 12:15, the hospital's Twitter feed reported "The kidney is making urine. Everyone in the OR is excited!"

It was 2:24 before John was fully stitched up, and surgery wrapped up at 2:30 p.m., the hospital said.

You can follow an archive of the hospital's Twitter feed below:

WFAA-TV reporter Cynthia Vega in Dallas and The Dallas Morning News contributed to this story.