Health

Doctor carries out surgery in DRC with help of sms

by Miriam Mannak | December 3, 2008 at 06:28 am

406 views | 64 Recommendations | 13 comments

These days, any news coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - where my parents are living - is not too happy. People are fighting, dying, raping, pillaging and suffering. En masse. But sometimes, only sometimes, there is a small spark of hope in between all the doom and gloom.

According to this article, a British doctor managed to perform a life saving and quite complicated surgery in the heart of the DRC by taking step- by-step instructions via text message from a colleague in London.

The doctor, who works for the organisation Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), performed the surgery on a 16-year old boy who had his arm ripped off as a result of the chronic fighting. According to the docotr by the name of David Nott, the child had only two or three days to live when he stumbled into him..

Nott decided that a forequarter amputation was the best option, an operation which requires removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade. As he had never performed such operation, he asked help form a colleague in London who gave him step-by-step instructions via text messages.

The boy survived, despite the fact that Nott only one pint of blood and an elementary operating theater.

Now that is an awesome story, now isn't it?

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Terri Potratz

at 09:24 on December 3rd, 2008

Yeah I figured - as soon as I wrote that I had a 'well, duh' moment. Texting would be considerably harder, to be sure!

danesller0127

at 14:04 on December 3rd, 2008

SMS, is the safest and fastest way in communicating and sending messages to others, we can adopted it to media, war zone, in case of calamities, and emergency, in remote places, etc. in seconds around the world. That's why my cellphone is very important to me. Good story! thanks for sharing...

pedrito1414

at 01:52 on December 4th, 2008

The guy is pretty amazing anyway... There's an interview with him here. Him and his team treated 75 gunshot victims in 24 hrs and they ALL survived!

Barbara McPherson

at 16:44 on December 9th, 2008

Yes it is awesome. Thanks for some good news out of the DRC.

Terri Potratz

at 09:16 on December 3rd, 2008

Interesting! I'm sure surgeons will soon be collaborating on procedures via web or satellite cam.

Jordan Yerman

at 09:23 on December 3rd, 2008

They already do: hopsitals assist each other via video conferencing for relatively new surgeries.

Miriam Mannak

at 09:38 on December 3rd, 2008

Yes, of course they do. But think this it quite a unique situation, considering the fact he only had one pint of blood and only a basic theater and little equipment. Such surgery is apparently only done 10 x a year in the UK.

Jordan Yerman

at 14:03 on December 3rd, 2008

Is there IM-speak for "suture"?

Rhonda J Mangus

at 20:21 on December 3rd, 2008

Thank you for this story, Miriam. Related coverage by NP Author Amitjha, here.

reshmi

at 01:35 on December 4th, 2008

nice to know that mobile technology played a big role in saving a boy's life. is there a way we all can help making DRC a better place. i am concerned for the DRC people.