Surgeon saves life by text
A British doctor used text message instructions from a colleague to perform a life-saving amputation on a boy in Africa.
Vascular surgeon David Nott helped the 16-year-old while working with Medecins Sans Frontieres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The boy's left arm had been ripped off by a hippopotamus and was badly infected and gangrenous, reports the BBC.
Mr Nott, 52, knew he needed to perform a forequarter amputation, which requires the surgeon to remove the collar bone and shoulder blade.
He had never performed the operation before but followed instructions from a colleague who had.
The surgeon, who is normally based at Charing Cross Hospital in London, said: "I texted him and he texted back step-by-step instructions on how to do it
"Even then I had to think long and hard about whether it was right to leave a young boy with only one arm in the middle of this fighting.
"But in the end he would have died without it so I took a deep breath and followed the instructions to the letter. I knew exactly what my colleague meant because we have operated together many times."
The surgeon had just one pint of blood and an elementary operating theatre, but the operation, performed in October, was a success and the teenager made a full recovery.
Mr Nott, who volunteers with MSF for a month every year, said: "It was just luck that I was there and could do it."
-Nova
