Life-Saving Emergency Trach Performed in Restaurant

On Sept 23, 2013, a physician performed a life-saving emergency tracheotomy in a restaurant on a patron who was choking on a piece of meat. [link]

While eating dinner at The Mark Restaurant in California, Dr. Royce Johnson, an infectious disease doctor affiliated with UCLA, performed this procedure on Pauline Larwood, a female supervisor and a community college trustee.

Dr. Johnson saved this woman's life using a pocket knife and the hollow cylinder of a pen after a Heimlich maneuver failed to work.

Interestingly, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, who was also present in the restaurant assisted in the care by monitoring Larwood’s pulse during the incident.

Also present in the restaurant witnessing the emergency procedure were:

• Francis Collins, MD (director of NIH)
• Farming and business moguls Lynda and Stewart Resnick
• Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield
• Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield
• State senator Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield

Although typically surgeons are the individuals trained to perform tracheotomies, bravo to Dr. Johnson who took the initiative in spite of the fact that he probably has never performed one.

I should also add that though media reports state that an emergency tracheostomy was performed, it is probably more likely that an emergency cricothyroidotomy was performed instead which is easier and less "bloody."

Source:
Dramatic dinner rescue involves knife, UCLA doctor and CDC chief. The Bakersfield Californian 9/24/13

CALIF. DOCTOR SAVES CHOKING DINER WITH KNIFE. The Associated Press 9/25/13