Is astounding.

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.

It's unclear whether the boy had been bitten by a hippopotamus or been caught in the midst of the violence in eastern Congo (my guess, unfortunately, is the latter), but in either case , this is a profound example using technology for social -- and life-saving -- change.

(image from flickr user JonJon2k8 under a Creative Commons license)