This invention is the culmination of many years and great struggles in my life and that of my family.
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My name is Kathy Wyttenbach Crockett and I am the inventor of the Auto Trachea Injector. I wanted to share my story and struggles so that people could understand the terrifying reality of not being able to take a simple breath. What I have done to help others and what has come out of this horrifying chain of events, is a life saving device which has now been granted a utility patent.
My life turned in a second one night in February of 2019. My husband and I were talking getting ready for bed, I rolled over and my breath stopped. No air. My heart started racing and I started to see stars and still unable to draw a breath. I was beginning to panic and threw my head forward and with the little breath I was able to pull in I managed to cough. I partially cleared by airway and had enough air to tell my husband to call 911. Again my breath cut off. I jumped up and ran to my husband of 34 years and was able to speak...."trachea me you are going to have to cut my throat I cant breathe!" I have never felt so helpless and hopeless. You see, I had a trachea four times over the last 28 years, so I kept I a trachea tube, a sterile kit, bandages, and an air bag, but no scalpel. My husband, out of desperation, grabbed his pocket knife off the dresser and attempted to trachea me. Unfortunately, and unknown to him, the knife was not sharp enough and would not cut through the scar tissue and cartilage and into the airway. By this time, I was trying to breath so hard I was causing a negative pressure bleed into my lungs and they were filling with blood. My husband finally got a small pinhole into my airway, enough for me to draw two small breaths, when I fell unconscious. My son and his wife were staying with us at the time, they had called the ambulance to the house and kept them apprised of the situation, but by the time that they arrived, I was unconscious, and they did not know what to do. Still unconscious, I was now blue and was loaded into the ambulance unresponsive. By a miracle, the bouncing around when they were loading me, and the attempt to suction me, were successful and the EMT was finally able to clear my airway and I was finally able to breathe.
After my arrival at the hospital, in the ER, the police were waiting to question my husband about why he had cut my throat? I do not know what he would have done if I had not survived to tell the police myself that I had asked him to do that to save my life.
I do not want anyone to have to go through this ever again.
During the two weeks in the hospital recovering from the negative pressure bleed into my lungs, I began to think about this experience and what I could do so that me or my family never has to go through this again. The Auto Trachea injector was developed.
Upon reflection, I realized all types of other situations that this invention could help. That week a child died on the playground because he had come in contact with a child that had eaten peanut butter and this child had a severe peanut allergy and the reaction of the closing of his airway was fatal. No air way equals 100% mortality. I soon realized how may people and situations could benefit from this technology. My patent adventure was just beginning.
An ambulance, police car, school, office building, military just to name a few. Hospitals could utilize this device as a new standard for trachea insertion. Over two years later, I now hold a Utility Patent for this device. However, a patent in hand does not a medical device make!
I am now on a quest to find partners to help with prototype development, investors/owners.
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