GR8T JOB CU L8TR
A British surgeon, volunteering for Medecins Sans Frontieres in the Democratic Republic of Congo, used text message instructions to perform a life-saving amputation on a 16-year-old boy, whose arm was bitten off by a hippopotamus while fishing.
The surgeon text messaged a London colleague who texted him back step-by-step instructions on how to do it:
“I knew the procedure that was right for him was to have a forequarter operation, which is an enormous operation. In the UK you’d need an intensive care unit to do it. It was a huge undertaking.”
Remarkable that he was able to perform a surgery in these conditions. Even though the guy has medical training, he had never done that kind of surgery before.
PS: SMS has indeed changed the way we communicate: about 1 in 7 say they’ve been dumped via text message.
