Medical Heroics In A Steak Restaurant

The knife that saved a life.

Everybody wants to have a doctor in the family. If that isn't possible, it's always nice if you can be in a room full of them when an emergency occurs. A couple of days ago, a customer by the name of Pauline Larwood was enjoying her dinner at The Mark in Bakersfield, CA when she started choking. Lucky for her she happened to be in a restaurant filled with physicians who were in town for a conference on Valley Fever.

When the Heimlich maneuver failed to dislodge her food bolus, she started turning blue. At that point, Dr. Royce Johnson, professor of medicine at UCLA and chief of infectious disease at Kern Medical Center, took charge. He grabbed a large pocket knife from another patron and proceeded to perform an emergency cricothyrotomy right there at the dinner table. Dr. Paul Krogstad, professor of pediatrics and pharmacology also at UCLA, then broke a pen in half and inserted it into the new airway. Dr. Johnson then started to ventilate Ms. Larwood by blowing through the pen as she was transferred by ambulance to the hospital.

Amazing. Most doctors have a vague understanding of how to make a cricothyrotomy but to actually be in a position where one is required in order to save a life is a scenario no doctor wants to be placed. For Ms. Larwood, she happened to be in the right place at the right time. Congratulations to the doctors for a job well done.