Woman performs tracheotomy with a Stanley knife to save boyfriend
Isak Bester was at a barbecue when he began choking on a piece of steak, but the courageous actions of his girlfriend Sarah Glass and their friends saved his life.
The group, which fortunately consisted of three midwives, had just started eating dinner on February 2, when the 50-year-old looked across the table at a friend and very calmly pointed at his throat.
Those at the barbecue quickly stepped into action, eventually seeing Ms Glass performing an emergency tracheotomy on her partner with a Stanley knife.
Mr Bester, who is a crematorium and cemetery manager from Hastings, New Zealand, acknowledges her actions that evening took "a lot of guts," especially as a self-employed midwife.
"She was really brave to do it and definitely saved my life," he told Yahoo7.
Ms Glass, 45, however remains humble and said they had no other option, explaining they were about 25 minutes from the nearest hospital.
"That moment of knowing he was dead if we didn't do something and help wasn't going to be coming any time soon," she said.
"Absolutely not heroic at all. If anyone you care about is in that situation you would have done it."
By that time she began the tracheotomy Mr Bester was unconscious.
She recalls telling him, "I'm sorry hunny this is going to hurt and I need to do it anyway."
Fortunately there were three medically trained woman at the dinner, who had the help of two of their partners and another friend.
Before the tracheotomoy was carried out other actions were tried. The Heimlich Manoeuvre was attempted as one of the midwives called for help.
The group then put Mr Bester on the ground as he passed out, before they performed CPR.
"It was really calm. Everyone was doing their job making sure everyone was doing it properly," Ms Glass told Yahoo7.
As the minutes passed, Ms Glass unsuccessfully tried to retrieve the meat with forceps from a home birth kit.
After seven minutes of mouth to mouth and compressions, Mr Bester was starting to turn dark purple.
At around eight minutes they could no longer get any air into his airway.
That's when Ms Glass said she knew there was no other option but to perform the emergency tracheotomy.
One of the partners grabbed the Stanley knife from the garage.
"It was only a minute, but by then he was dark, dark purple," Ms Glass explained.
Ms Glass said she made four small narrow incisions knowing it could have turned out very badly had she misjudged where to make the cuts.
She said she put a syringe down the trachea, then grabbed some oxygen from the homeowner's home birth kit and inserted the tube down the trachea.
At about the ten minute-mark Mr Bester began to regain his colour.
By the time the first responder arrived his heart rate had returned to normal levels.
"He would never have survived if the rest of it had not been done," Ms Glass said.
"We all trusted each other and knew that we had to keep doing it."
Around 30 minutes after the incident began a rescue helicopter arrived taking Mr Bester to hospital where he remained for eight days - three of those in an induced coma.
Now a month later and he is doing really well and says his outlook on life has changed.
"Make time and do stuff with family and friends," Mr Bester said.
And while he may not remember all of the ordeal, he is incredibly grateful for the actions of his partner and their friends.
"They never, never gave up and carried on the whole time."
