By AFPMore by this AuthorAn eight-year-old boy from the Democratic Republic of Congo who came to Los Angeles with the help of former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo for surgery to remove a tumour from his face has died. Mutombo and his foundation helped bring Matadi Sela Petit and his father to the United States earlier in December so that doctors could remove the tumor. But in an Instagram post on Saturday the foundation said the boy had died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday night after a reaction to anesthesia during surgery. "During the delicate surgery, Matadi suffered a rare and unpredictable genetic reaction to anesthesia," the statement said. Mutombo, who played in the NBA from 1991-2009, was born in Kinshasa and created the Dikembe Mutombo foundation in 1997 to help "improve the health, education and quality of life for people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo".

Source: Daily Nation December 23, 2018 08:15 UTC