The child Dikembe Mutombo flew to the U.S. to remove a massive tumor from his face required CPR after he went into cardiac arrest during surgery ... TMZ has learned.
According to dispatch audio -- obtained by TMZ -- 8-year-old Matadi was administered CPR Sunday at around 6 PM PT as an ambulance arrived to take him from one section of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center campus -- where he was undergoing surgery -- to an Intensive Care Unit in a nearby building.
At one point, a dispatch operator calls off one ambulance and sends another that's closer.
The surgery was scheduled to last 6 hours and Matadi went into cardiac arrest around the 6-hour mark. We don't know if the operation was completed. We've been trying to get an update for days, to no avail -- no one's talking. We were told, as of Monday night, Matadi was in stable condition and was able to move his hands and feet. Otherwise, everyone's radio silent.
As we showed you ... Dikembe flew Matadi to the States a week ago for free surgery in hopes of removing the life-threatening, massive tumor on his face. We captured their meeting at LAX, and needless to say ... it was a heartwarming moment.