The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: December 7, 2008

Official News page 9


REAL LIFE NEWS: SURGERY BY TEXT

by Hazed

Here's a great story about how technology can help transfer skills in a very unusual way. A British doctor, who was volunteering in DR Congo, found himself having to carry out a life-saving amputation on a boy, but he'd never performed the operation before - so he received instructions by text message.

The boy's left arm had been ripped off and was badly infected and gangrenous - much of the surrounding muscle had died and there was little skin left to fold over the wound. Nasty! "He was dying. He had about two or three days to live when I saw him," said volunteer surgeon David Nott, who was working with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in Rurshuru. He knew he needed to perform what is called a forequarter amputation, requiring removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade. So he contacted Professor Meirion Thomas, from London's Royal Marsden Hospital, who had performed the operation before.

"I texted him and he texted back step by step instructions on how to do it," explained Mr Nott.

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. Despite only having just one pint of blood and an emergency operating theatre, the operation was a success and the teenage boy made a full recovery.

There are conflicting reports about how the boy became injured - it was suggested that he had been bitten by a hippopotamus while fishing, but Mr Nott also heard that he had been caught in crossfire between government and rebel forces. However it happened, the boy is lucky Mr Nott was prepared to try such a risky operation, and lucky that text messages made it possible.


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