In what must surely be the most astonishing use of text messaging, a surgeon in the Democratic Republic of Congo has carried out a difficult shoulder amputation using only a scalpel and messages sent from a fellow surgeon's mobile phone.

David Knott, 52, a volunteer surgeon working for Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) in the war-torn country managed to save the life of a 16-year-old boy reading instructions from text messages sent from a colleague holidaying in the Azores.

The boy had been bitten by a hippo and Knott knew that without the surgery the boy would die. The amputation involved the removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade. This is a complex operation at best, requiring sterile conditions, out Knott only had a makeshift operating theatre.

"We only had one pint of blood, one scalpel, one pair of forceps and I wasn't sure if the anaesthetic was strong enough", Knott told the Daily Mail.

Knott is a general surgeon who had never attempted such an operation before, so he contacted Meirion Thomas, a surgeon he knew had performed the procedure before. However Thomas was on holiday in the Azores.

Thomas managed to send a few text messages explaining, step-by-step, how to carry out the complex surgery, followed up by text messages of encouragement.

Thankfully, the operation succeeded and the boy recovered sans arm.