SC hospital offering glimpse at open-heart surgery

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina hospital is offering an up-close glimpse of beating open heart surgery.

Providence Hospitals is teaming up with the South Carolina State Museum to show a video of a recent surgical procedure performed on a beating heart. A cardiologist will also be on hand to talk about the surgery.

The event on Thursday is free and open to the public. Registration is available at http://bit.ly/BeatingHeartSurgery .

Organizers hope the experience will help educate everyone from physicians to heart patients about the benefits of open-heart surgery and ways to prevent heart disease.

Officials say Providence performs about 650 open-heart procedures each year.