An Egyptian fisherman nearly lost his life after one of his catches got stuck in his windpipe, making it almost impossible for him to breathe or retrieve the fish.

Earlier this month, doctors at the emergency room of a hospital in Beni Suef, Egypt, were shocked to discover that a patient who had been brought in with symptoms like shortness of breath and speaking difficulties, had a fish stuck in his throat.

Upon examining the man, they noticed that the fish was stuck at the entrance to the trachea, leaving just enough space for a little air to get through and prevent the man from suffocating before even reaching the hospital.

The doctors performed an endoscopic surgery and managed to extract the fish, which El-Ain reports was still alive! Dr. Ali Al-Hajri, the ear, nose and throat specialist who managed to remove the fish from the patient’s throat, told Egypt’s Channel One television channel that if the man had been brought in only a few minutes later, he would have suffocated.

Luckily, the operation was a success, and apart from some minor bleeding, the patient is fine and should make a full recovery.

So how does someone get a live fish stuck in their throat?

Well, in this case, the patient, a 40-year-old fisherman from the village of Snur, on the banks of the Nile, told doctors that he had just caught a small fish when he noticed that the line of another fishing rod was pulling.

Desperate to not let his second catch getaway, he quickly put the first fish in his mouth so he could free up his hands…

You don’t have to be a genius to figure out what happened next. The live, slippery fish managed to wiggle its way out of the man’s bite and got stuck in his throat. Luckily, it left a bit of space for air to get in through, which kept the fisherman alive until he was transported to the hospital.