The 26-year-old was told he had Astrocytoma, and throughout the months since, he collected a 3D printout of his brain, every CT scan and MRI he has had done, blood work, genetic sequencing data, microbiome sequencing data, angiograms, as well as copies of all his health records.
During his cancer treatment, Keating also took his own stool samples, so he could study how chemotherapy changed his gut flora. He said he wants to enable other patients to collect and share their data, as well as understand it.
Keating said that he after he was diagnosed, he was given three weeks before he had to go in for a 10-hour awake brain surgery.
Keating was kept awake during the surgery, which was performed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, so the doctors could ask him questions while they were cutting brain tissue and probing.
He recovered from the surgery quickly, and Keating was able to leave the hospital after two days. Within a week he was back on the MIT campus.
He was asked what is was like to watch his own brain surgery, and Keating said it was pretty crazy, as well as instructive. He said if he didn’t see the video, then he wouldn’t have had any idea what was done to him, and he said that patients have the right to understand what people are doing to you. He said that is especially the case when it involves something sensitive such as the brain.
