Surgeon amputates shoulder via text

A British surgeon working in Congo has amputated a boy's shoulder using text messages for guidance.

David Nott was working with a charity in the African country when he found the 16-year-old in dire need of attention.

He noticed that the boy's flesh and bone had become gangrenous and needed to be amputated. However, the 52-year-old had not performed the procedure before.

"I texted [a colleague] and he texted back step-by-step instructions. 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," Nott said.

"In the end he would have died without it, so I took a deep breath and followed the instructions to the letter."

The operation was a success and the boy made a full recovery.