Extra Hustle During Game Nearly Proves Fatal : Basketball: Player for The Master’s College suffers a crushed trachea while diving for the ball.

Gasping for air and overcome by fear, forward Phil Sanson of The Master’s College nearly died during a game Saturday night.

Sanson was saved by two surgical procedures shortly after he suffered a crushed trachea while diving headfirst into the bleachers to save the ball from going out of bounds during an NAIA game against Dominican College in San Rafael, Calif.

He was rushed to the Marin General Hospital, where Arthur Fenn cleared his air passage by performing a cricothyrotomy, a procedure in which an incision is made in the larynx and a tube is inserted, allowing breathing.

“There was a point there where it was a matter of minutes whether he’d live or die,” Fenn said by phone from the Bay Area. “He was rapidly deteriorating.”

Half an hour later, Sanson underwent a tracheotomy, during which Fenn inserted a larger tube into his air passage.

In stable condition Monday, Sanson was transferred to UC San Francisco Medical Center, where Herbert Dedo will perform reconstructive surgery today on his larynx.

Sanson, 21, who does not have the use of his voice, wrote a message for team trainer Bill Vine to deliver to a reporter: “I am thankful. I give thanks to the Lord for saving my life.”

A starter, Sanson averaged 10 points and six rebounds for the Mustangs (10-8). The 6-foot-7 senior transferred to The Master’s, a Santa Clarita-based school, two years ago.

“He’s one of those cliche blue-collar workers,” The Master’s Coach Mel Hankinson said. “At practice, he’s one of the hardest workers, and if he’s not in the game, he’s always encouraging his teammates.”

Sanson was thinking about them after the tracheotomy. “When he woke up after surgery, he grabbed my arm,” Fenn said. “He couldn’t talk, but he mouthed the words. I finally got, ‘Did we win?’ I told him I didn’t know. He grabbed my arm and mouthed, ‘You got to find out.’ So I ran out to the hallway to find the coach.”

The Mustangs did win, 77-71, after a 40-minute delay, including a span during which paramedics treated Sanson at courtside.

Sanson was overcome by fear more than pain during that time. “The passage was crushed and very little oxygen was getting in,” Hankinson said. “He diagnosed his own problem and sensed that he was in great danger.”

Hankinson said Sanson whispered, “Coach, I can’t breathe. Coach, I can’t breathe.”