[IGSTK-Developers] BBC NEWS | Health | Surgeon saves boy's life by text

[Anka Kochanowska]

I don't think     this is a correct place for the message.
Anka :-)

Luis Ibanez wrote:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7761994.stm
>
>
> Surgeon saves boy's life by text
>
>
> 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.
>
> The surgeon, who is based at Charing Cross Hospital in west London,
> said: "He was dying. He had about two or three days to live when I saw 
> him."
>
> Careful instructions
>
> It is not clear how the boy was 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Even then I had to think long and hard about whether it was right to
> leave a young boy with only one arm in the middle of this fighting.
>
> "But in the end he would have died without it so I took a deep breath
> and followed the instructions to the letter.
>
> "I knew exactly what my colleague meant because we have operated
> together many times."
>
> 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.
>
> David Nott explains the procedure
>
> 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.
>
> The surgeon, who volunteers with MSF for a month every year, said: "I
> don't think there's more than two or three surgeons in the UK who can do
> this. It was just luck that I was there and could do it.
>
> "I don't think that someone that wasn't a vascular surgeon would have
> been able to deal with the large blood vessels involved. That is why I
> volunteer myself so often, I love being able to save someone's life."
>
> In the absence of intensive-care facilities, Mr Nott said he had
> personally monitored the boy's recovery from his bedside, tending his
> wounds.
>
> "It was touch and go whether he would make it so when I saw his face on
> the MSF website afterwards, it was a real delight," he added.
>
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