JEDDAH: A medical consultation on social media application WhatsApp helped save a child’s knee from being amputated.

The father of six-year-old Hossam said that a bullet had stuck in his son’s right knee. After examination, doctors at King Khaled Civil Hospital in Tabuk said that surgery was needed and that there was a high possibility of his knee being removed because the bullet was lodged in the most difficult area.

The father was told by an official at the hospital that there was modern equipment at the hospital which had not been used before.

The father of Hossam then contacted a Jordanian consultant via WhatsApp and explained the difficulties in carrying out the surgery in Tabuk to remove the bullet. He sent him Hossam’s X-ray.

The Jordanian consultant, after looking at the X-ray, who, said it required a minor operation. The father and son then traveled to Jordan for the operation.

“The bullet was extracted in a matter of minutes,” said the father. “If we had agreed for the surgery at King Khaled Hospital in Tabuk, my son would have been living all his life with one leg.” He demanded an enquiry into the case by the Ministry of Health.