Israeli brain catheterization. Photo: Shaare Tzedek Medical Center

In a first, some 12,000 medical professionals in Washington, D.C., watched a new Israeli brain catheterization technique, livestreamed from Jerusalem’s Sha’are Tzedek  Medical Center on Monday, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported.

The patient, who was suffering from a life-threatening cranial arterial blockage, was the first to undergo the procedure, which uses a fine metal mesh sleeve that is carefully inserted within the blocked blood vessel, and then expanded to allow proper blood flow again, according to the hospital.

Many of the scrubbed, gowned and gloved personnel in the operating theater, however, weren’t medical staff, but rather videographers, sound recordists, and producers, busy preparing the complex, multi-camera and wireless microphone headsets necessary to record and transmit the far more complex medical procedure worldwide.

Outside the building, two mobile live production satellite trucks are stationed, to beam the procedure to the American audience, who were watching and learning the revolutionary procedure from their Israeli peers.

Watch the Israeli news coverage of the event: