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.