In a tracheotomy, doctors open a hole in the throat to the windpipe, creating an artificial airway.
2.
In 1989 he invented a surgical instrument and a procedure, now called the " Griggs technique ", to perform percutaneous tracheotomy and make an artificial airway for the critically ill and injured.
3.
Surgeons arrived quickly, creating the artificial airway through the front of his neck, placing tubes through his chest wall to release the air pressing on his collapsed lungs, and slicing between his ribs to gain access to his heart, according to a discharge summary from Long Island Jewish.