Surgeon saves boy's life by text message

[lanlady]

Source: BBC News

A British doctor volunteering in DR Congo used text message instructions from a colleague to perform a life-saving amputation on a boy.

Vascular surgeon David Nott helped the 16-year-old while working 24-hour shifts with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Rutshuru.

The boy's left arm had been ripped off and was badly infected and gangrenous.

Mr Nott, 52, from London, had never performed the operation but followed instructions from a colleague who had.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7761994.stm

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. wtg nt

[slipslidingaway]

2. Thanks, great story

"...There were just 6in (15cm) of the boy's arm remaining, much of the surrounding muscle had died and there was little skin to fold over the wound.

Mr Nott knew he needed to perform a forequarter amputation, requiring removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade.

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," he said.

...Mr Nott, from Fulham, west London, 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..."

[Hekate]

7. My gods that's extensive--collarbone and shoulder blade gone too. Better than dying though.

Really gutsy doctors.

Hekate

[kestrel91316]

3. Sounds like the first c-section I ever did on a cow. Out in the field,

miles from nowhere. I had never seen one start to finish, so the wrangler gave me lay pointers based on what he had seen my boss do. Calf was dead and bloated, so it was a "fun" surgery. The cow lived and raised a nice grafted calf.

Cutting and pasting by the seat of one's pants.........those were the days.......

[BlueIris]

4. Yikers! But I'm happy to hear that the cow made it. nt

[Kali]

5. please move here

we have no real large animal vet anymore (well, overpriced horsey vets who won't travel excepted)

[kestrel91316]

10. Well, I'm a cat vet these days. My large animal skills have been

mothballed for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, lol.

[kath]

6. Sounds a bit like a James Herriot story.

Our family has really enjoyed his books - read the first two, and watched the first two seasons of the TV series on video.

[kestrel91316]

11. Yeah, that whole year was like it was straight from the pages.

I should have kept a diary. Now that I am INCLINED to write, I can't remember half the cool things that I have experienced, lol.

[Hekate]

8. Gutsy stuff, kestrel. Sounds like the wrangler was a good assistant, too.

Congratulations.

Hekate

[kestrel91316]

12. And I am 5'4" and weighed 120 lb soaking wet back then.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Good to know

that surgeon cared so much and it says a huge amount for Medecins Sans Frontieres