- Sarah Glass, 45, saved her boyfriend’s life after he was choking on a steak
- The midwife used a Stanley knife to puncture his airways and save his life
- Isak Bester, 50, was ‘completely purple’ when he choked at the barbecue
A midwife heroically cut open her boyfriend’s airways with a Stanley knife after he was choking on a piece of steak at a barbecue in the North Island of New Zealand.
Sarah Glass, 45, was at a barbecue last month when her boyfriend Isak Bester, 50, began to choke on a piece of steak.
The midwife began to give her boyfriend CPR and mouth-to-mouth to resuscitate him.
Isak Bester, 50, was chocking on a piece of steak when his partner did an emergency surgery
Sarag Glass, 45, used a Stanley knife to puncture a hole in the airway of her partner
‘He was completely purple, but we were getting air in and it looked like we might be able to keep him going,’ Ms Glass told RadioLIVE.
‘After about eight minutes we were no longer getting air into him. The piece of steak had moved, so he was now turning a very nasty shade of purple and he was dying in front of us,’ she said.
The Hawke’s Bay woman asked if anyone had a sharp object and punctured a hole in his windpipe to kick start his breathing.
Sarah Glass(left) saved the life of Isak Bester(right) at a barbecue in New Zealand last month
She preformed a tracheotomy on her partner, a procedure she had studied in her 20s, and used a syringe from a home-birthing kit to keep the airway open.
The off-duty midwife then used an oxygen tank which was also in her kit to bring him back to colour.
Twenty minutes later a paramedic arrived and Mr Bester was airlifted to hospital.
‘My partner was lying in a puddle of blood, I had blood all up my arms. We’d just had a very scary experience and I was thinking, what next?’
Mr Bester is expected to make a full recovery after the barbecue surgery.
Mr Bester is expected to make a full recovery after the split second surgery at the barbecue