‘The trachea heals but the hypoxia does not’ an emergency front-of-neck access in a 4-year-old with foreign body airway obstruction

‘Can’t Intubate Can’t Oxygenate’ (CICO) situation is a life-threatening emergency, and an uncommon event in the healthy paediatric population. In children without anatomical airway anomalies, this scenario is most often due to laryngospasm or airway obstruction and can in most cases, be reversed with appropriate medical treatment or removal of the foreign body. This case report describes an emergency front-of-neck surgical airway (eFONA) with a scalpel–bougie–tube method, during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a 4-year-old child due to foreign body airway obstruction.