Angler impaled through heart while fishing in South Dakota. ‘Lesser man would be dead’
.png "An angler was impaled through the heart by a piece of fishing equipment in a freak accident in South Dakota, but he survived.")
A fisherman nearly died while pulling in an ornery fish earlier this month in South Dakota, but according to his wife, he’s just too tough to kill.
Todd Thesenvitz was reeling in a “monster” northern pike on a lake near Clark and the fish was putting up a hellacious fight, Marie Thesenvitz wrote in a Facebook post. During the struggle, the pike breached the surface and her husband’s rod snapped, she said. A few moments later, Todd Thesenvitz screamed out in pain.
His “bottom bouncer,” a piece of equipment often used when trolling for walleye and similar game, had pierced his chest, Marie Thesenvitz said. They dialed 911.
It was a 13-minute trip back to shore, and when they arrived, help was already waiting.
“I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted because it was too painful for him,” Marie Thesenvitz said, but when they made it “there were red lights from every possible entity!”
Their daughter, who is a nurse and was fishing with them, told him to leave the bottom bouncer alone until he was at a hospital, KXLG reported.
That advice likely saved his life. As they would soon find out, Todd Thesenvitz’s fishing tackle had punctured his heart.
He was taken to a hospital 30 miles away in Watertown, then put on a helicopter to Sioux Falls, where an operating room was being prepped.
“In the OR, after opening his sternum, the surgeon found a pericardium that was so full of blood it was now preventing the heart from beating,” Marie Thesenvitz said in the post. “The surgeon cut open the pericardium and released the blood which caused a blood pressure fluctuation that required life support bypass for heart and lung.”
Her husband survived the operation, the surgeon stitched up the wounds, and Thesenvitz could begin the healing process.
It could have easily gone another way, his wife said, and the surgeon was as amazed as anyone that it didn’t.
“The surgeon was very blunt and said there was no reason Todd was still alive,” she said. “A lesser man would be dead.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Angler impaled through heart while fishing in South Dakota. ‘Lesser man would be dead’."