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December 04, 2008
Text Messaging Facilitates Life-Saving Operation in War-Torn Nation
To save the life of a 16 year old boy who needed a gangrenous and infected left arm amputated, a British member of Medecins San Frontiers (MSF) was assisted by a colleague who sent instructions to the Democratic Republic of Congo based surgeon, by text messaging.
The modern way of bridging distances in communication came forward victoriously as the ‘real’ hero in the entire ordeal, as David Nott, the 52 year old MSF volunteer reportedly said the boy had about 2 or 3 days left before he would have died and Nott had never performed the necessary surgery before.
While Nott was aware that he needed to perform a forequarter amputation, that required removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade in order to correct the badly ripped and extremely infectious arm, he needed instructions and so contacted Professor Meirion Thomas from London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, who had experience with this type of procedure.
Nott said, “I took a deep breath and followed the instructions to the letter.”
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