SMS saves boys life in DRC

In a truly amazing use of technology a British doctor working as a volunteer in DRC was able to amputate a gangrenous limb by following instructions sent from the UK by SMS.

David Nott is a vascular surgeon who spends a month a year as a volunteer for Medicines sans Frontiers. The boy's arm was badly infected after being ripped off and he would have died without the surgery. As a vascular surgeon, Nott had never performed an amputation. But a collegue at Charing Cross Hospital in London sent him instructions by SMS.

The boy required major surgery - the removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade. Nott contacted Professor Meirion Thomas, from London's Royal Marsden Hospital, who had performed the operation before.

The operation is only performed about 10 times a year in the UK, usually on cancer patients, and requires the back-up of an intensive-care unit. Patients usually lose a lot of blood during the procedure. the boy has made a full recovery, in spite of the poor conditions in the hospital in DRC.