NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Pregnant woman's throat cut open in last-resort medical procedure to save baby and mum

Emma Russell
By Emma Russell
Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·
13 Dec, 2020 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Darshi Wewalage, her husband Rukshan Don Wijesinghe, their baby Joel and daughter Hailey, 6, are a family thanks to Auckland City Hospital's medical team. Photo / Dean Purcell

Darshi Wewalage, her husband Rukshan Don Wijesinghe, their baby Joel and daughter Hailey, 6, are a family thanks to Auckland City Hospital's medical team. Photo / Dean Purcell

As an "absolute last resort", a pregnant woman's throat was sliced open by a doctor who had never before performed the life-saving medical procedure. The thankful mum and her baby boy survived and are now doing well.

The day after Darshi Wewalage's 40th birthday, she lay unconscious on an Auckland operating table with her unborn baby boy trapped inside her. Both hearts were minutes away from death.

"I remember there being a calmness in the room... we had to act quick or she and her baby would die," Auckland District Health Board consultant anaesthetist Dr Jack Hill told the Herald.

It was July 4 and Wewalage - who was 29 weeks' pregnant - had developed a rare and life-threatening pregnancy complication called HELLP (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count) syndrome, affecting her ability to get oxygen to her and her baby's lungs.

The Auckland banker's condition worsened when doctors were unable to get a breathing tube through her mouth due to her swollen throat, Hill said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Instead, close to 20 Auckland DHB staff - including surgeons, anaesthetists, junior doctors, nurses and orderlies - had less than five minutes to complete a task no one in the operating room had ever performed.

"It was a team effort, everyone played their part," Hill said.

Another anaesthetist had to make a cut across the Wewalage's throat and insert a breathing tube into her lungs.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It's called an emergency surgical cricothyrotomy and is only used in life-threatening situations when the patient's airway is blocked.

Hill, whose career spans more than 20 years, said it was a crisis procedure a doctor might only see "once in a lifetime, if that".

"As an anaesthetist, you train for it but you never think you will actually have to do it. It was an absolute last resort and no one knew if it would work," he said.

"But the patient would die otherwise so it had to be done."

Discover more

World

A mother, her son - and their 2,400km search for home

02 Dec 05:00 AM
New Zealand

Exclusive: C-section mums face scrutiny at biggest NZ hospital

11 Dec 04:00 PM
New Zealand

C-section clampdown: Mums complain to health watchdog

12 Dec 04:00 PM
New Zealand

Covid 19: Deportees trapped behind bars

13 Dec 05:01 PM

Wewalage's husband Rukshan Don Wijesinghe and their 6-year-old daughter Hailey sat in the waiting room, anxiously awaiting their loved ones' fate.

Auckland DHB consultant anaesthetist Dr Jack Hill meets baby Joel Don Wijesinghe and his mother Darshi Wewalage for the first time after helping save their lives. Photo / Dean Purcell
Auckland DHB consultant anaesthetist Dr Jack Hill meets baby Joel Don Wijesinghe and his mother Darshi Wewalage for the first time after helping save their lives. Photo / Dean Purcell

Wewalage had been admitted to Auckland City Hospital on July 1 with high blood pressure and a concerning heart rate.

Four days later, she had just finished her birthday dinner at the hospital and said goodbye to her husband who was returning to a pub where he works as head chef.

That's when doctors felt Wewalage's unborn baby was not moving.

Baby Joel Don Wijesinghe is a miracle who fought for survival. Photo / Dean Purcell
Baby Joel Don Wijesinghe is a miracle who fought for survival. Photo / Dean Purcell

Without being able to kiss her husband goodbye, Wewalage was rushed into surgery.

Hill said the crisis procedure they performed on Wewalage was so rare it only happens in 3.4 out of every 100,000 caesarean sections.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's a task we can only practise on artificial models."

Within seconds of the anaesthetist inserting a tube into her neck, the beep of the heart monitor returned to a steady pace and whole room let out a big sigh of relief, Hill said.

"It was an incredible moment."

But the medical team was "not out of the woods yet", Hill said.

The baby, who was not due until September 20, then had to be delivered by caesarean section. The infant was taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where he spent eight weeks.

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Sarah Corbett, who was not involved in Wewalage's surgery, said she had been working as a specialist at Middlemore Hospital and never seen the crisis procedure done before.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"That's really impressive they were able to pull it off and recognise she was getting into that state in time to make that decision," Corbett said.

Meanwhile, Wewalage was taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) to recover.

"I didn't get to see my baby for five days after he was born," she told the Herald.

Darshi Wewalage, 40, in ICU after almost dying during sugery due to a rare pregancy complication. Photo / Supplied
Darshi Wewalage, 40, in ICU after almost dying during sugery due to a rare pregancy complication. Photo / Supplied

Wewalage said before the surgery she knew she and her baby would be okay, but after being admitted to ICU, she feared she might die.

"I was scared my husband and daughter with our newborn wouldn't be able to cope."

When the now mum-of-two finally got to look into her son Joel's eyes, she said it was magic.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I can't describe it. He is so beautiful. Every morning he is the first one to wake and you always find him smiling.

"I am just so thankful to all the hospital staff involved. They were just so amazing."

The baby is now at home, healthy and happy.

Wewalage's husband Wijesinghe said he couldn't imagine life without his wife and newborn son.

"Words cannot describe it. I believe those doctors are gods and the nurses are angels."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected

06 Jul 08:48 AM
Crime

'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer

06 Jul 08:00 AM
Wellington

'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack

06 Jul 06:58 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected

'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected

06 Jul 08:48 AM

Emergency services were called to the scene about 7.45pm.

'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer

'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer

06 Jul 08:00 AM
'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack

'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack

06 Jul 06:58 AM
Police respond to assault at pool: One hospitalised, charges laid

Police respond to assault at pool: One hospitalised, charges laid

06 Jul 06:31 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP