Hansel, a two-and-a-half-year-old pit bull mix, arrived at the West Hills Animal Hospital & Emergency Center in Huntington, New York, with a solid rubber ball completely lodged in his throat. His owner, Kelly Skinner, rushed him there while the dog was literally turning blue from lack of oxygen. Every second counted.
What Dr. Kristie Williams did was not in any routine hospital protocol: she applied direct pressure from the outside of the dog’s neck, a technique called ‘external extraction’ that she had seen demonstrated in a training video years earlier and had never used in practice. In the video recorded that night, she can be seen positioning herself over Hansel, applying precise pressure until the ball gave way. What seemed impossible lasted only seconds. 🎥
The most unsettling detail: exactly 20 minutes earlier, Dr. Williams herself had saved a Doberman with a stuck tennis ball using the same technique, also for the first time at that center. Two dogs. Two balls. One single night. Kelly Skinner described the scene through tears in an interview with ABC7 New York; today she says Hansel is already ready to play fetch every day, as if nothing had happened. 🐾