KANSAS CITY, Mo. — She wasn’t supposed to live through the night after doctors discovered she had multiple blood clots. But now she’s living life to the fullest,  thanks to St. Luke’s doctors used a new device to save her life.

Lynne Haug met Dr. Kenneth Cho on June 17. It was Father’s Day and her family had plans to celebrate.

“We were ready to go, and all of the sudden, I looked up at him and he looked funny,” she said of the moment she looked at her husband. “I just looked at him, and I couldn’t catch my breath,” Haug said.

Before she knew it, she was in a helicopter flying to St. Luke’s Hospital on the Country Club Plaza.

“I walked in and the oxygen was just going at full-blast. She was on 25 liters, and they were struggling to keep her oxygen levels up,” Cho said.

The lack of oxygen put a significant strain on Haug’s heart.

“She was very sick, and honestly, I thought her risk of dying was very high,” Cho said.

The St. Luke’s doctor discovered 10 large blood clots, blocking oxygen to Haug’s lungs. Instead of open surgery or clot dissolving medication, her doctors decided to use the FlowTriever device. It allowed doctors to pull out those large blood clots.

“There are other devices on the market, but none that are this size and as effective and can pull out those kinds of clots,” Cho said.

Chow said St. Luke’s is the only hospital in Kansas and Missouri using the FlowTriever device. Since April, the hospital has treated 40 patients using it.

Haug is currently receiving chemotherapy for a brain tumor. She also survived ovarian cancer in 2014.