 Fearful of complications, most surgeons delayed the potentially life-saving tracheotomy until a patient was moribund, despite the knowledge that irreversible organ damage would have already occurred by that time.This began to change in the early 19th century, when the tracheotomy finally began to be recognized as a legitimate means of treating severe airway obstruction.In 1832, French physician Pierre Bretonneau (1778–1862) employed tracheotomy as a last resort to treat a case of diphtheria.