SA: Sailor airlifted after almost choking on false teeth

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-1999
SA: Sailor airlifted after almost choking on false teeth

ADELAIDE, April 30 AAP - A crewman who swallowed his false teeth had to be airlifted from a
container ship in the Great Australian Bight in a highly-skilled rescue operation early today.

The 34-year-old Filipino seaman had difficulties breathing when his denture plate,
containing three or four teeth, became lodged in his throat during the night.

A retrieval team from the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) flew in the Rescue One helicopter
to the container ship, about 100 nautical miles south of the South Australian coastal town of
Port Lincoln.

Doctors were airlifted onto the ship about 4am in a rare night-winching as it was unsafe
for the aircraft to land.

RAH director of retrieval and resuscitation Fred Gilligan said they anaesthetised the man,
inserted a breathing tube and placed him on a life-support system before being collected by
the helicopter and transported to Adelaide.

"A denture plate became stuck in his throat basically causing much distress, difficulty of
breathing, coughing and spluttering and so forth and he couldn't remove it," Dr Gilligan said.

"So a distress call went out from the ship's captain which was received by the rescue
helicopter service in Adelaide and a medical team was dispatched.

"The ear, nose and throat surgeons looked down his throat and managed to cut the offending
dentures into two pieces and took them out.

"He wouldn't have been able to get them out himself, it would have caused coughing and
bleeding."

Dr Gilligan said the man was now in a satisfactory condition in the RAH.

AAP vm/jnb

KEYWORD: TEETH NIGHTLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.