Surgeon Coached Through Emergency Amputation Via Text Message

by Lee Bains on December 3, 2008 at 07:18 PM

This past October, a British doctor volunteering in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo performed an emergency amputation on a severely injured young man, the BBC and Textually.org reported earlier today. Dr. David Nott operated on the boy under the direction of his London colleague, Dr. Meirion Thomas. Or, rather, under the direction of Dr. Thomas's text messages.

Although Dr. Nott was uncertain of how the boy had lost all but six inches of his arm (stories ranged from a hippopotamus bite to crossfire), he was certain that -- due to a lack of immediate medical attention -- the boy would die from gangrene, unless an amputation were promptly performed.

But, since amputations are seldom performed in England, Dr. Nott was unsure of the proper procedure. Fortunately, though, he had once seen Dr. Thomas successfully perform the necessary operation, and had his cell phone number handy.

Several trans-equatorial text messages later, with Dr. Thomas offering step-by-step guidance, Dr. Nott had successfully amputated his patient's arm. With his patient fully recovered, Dr. Nott is grateful for his London associate and, undoubtedly, for SMS technology. [From: BBC via Textually.org]

Tags: health, medicine, science, surgery, text-messaging, texting, top, weird