A man in his 40s sustained a life-threatening injury when he crashed his motorcycle in Port Elizabeth.

Lucky for him, Cape Town surgeon Dr Wimpie Odendaal (above) was in the right place at the right time.

Odendaal, who lives in Cape Town, but was on holiday in PE (don’t ask us why), was the first to arrive on the scene, reports IOL.

He recognised that the motorcyclist had sustained a serious chest injury and was able to perform a life-saving emergency procedure with only a pocketknife, at the roadside, while waiting for emergency medical services to arrive.

“My wife, general practitioner Dr Christa de Wit, and I were on holiday in Port Elizabeth and were driving with my sister-in-law Louise, who is a nursing sister, on a quiet, leafy back road one day when we happened upon the scene of a road accident,” Odendaal, who practises at Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital, recalls. 

“It was clear that the accident had happened just seconds before we arrived. My wife immediately asked Louise to call Netcare 911 emergency medical services.”

“The veins in the patient’s neck were distended and his trachea had shifted. It became evident to me that the man had developed a tension pneumothorax, which is a life-threatening condition whereby air becomes trapped between the membranes surrounding the lungs inside the ribcage… I knew that something would need to be done immediately to relieve the tension pneumothorax, or the man would have little chance of survival.

“By this time, a few bystanders had gathered at the scene and, as I had no medical equipment in my car save for a plastic mouthpiece for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, I shouted to ask if anybody had a sharp object I could use. I was offered a pocketknife, and had no other choice than to use this to open the fifth intercostal space anterior to the midaxillary line, which is a specific area between the ribs on the side, to relieve the pressure. If not for this emergency intervention, the man would most likely have died within minutes.”

After a few tense moments, the tension pneumothorax was relieved and the patient’s condition briefly improved. Someone fetched a basting needle from a nearby house, which Odendaal used to keep the hole in the patient’s side open.

Following that Netcare arrived and took the man to the hospital. he has since been discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.

Odendaal and the man have been in touch:

“I was really delighted to have a telephone conversation with this gentleman in the last week of January. Since being discharged, he is continuing his recovery at home. I am really grateful that he is alive and well.”

Someone needs to get Dr Odendaal a Bell’s.

[source:iol]