Colo. Improv Comics Help Save Bleeding Woman`s Life

DENVER --

A Denver man said Improv comedy helped saved his wife's life.

Janina Klingensmith had surgery on Friday related to her diabetes treatment.

"Doctors told me I could resume normal activity," Klingensmith told 7NEWS.

So Klingensmith and her husband went to the Improv Denver comedy club Saturday night. Just before the show, Chris Klingensmith said a vein blew in his wife's left hand and blood starting squirting everywhere.

"I felt this weird, tingly situation on my arm and it swelled up," said Klingensmith.

Chris Klingensmith called 911, but his wife said he couldn't speak because he was in complete shock. Janina Klingensmith told 7NEWS that the club's general manager, Stacey Hart, grabbed the phone and calmly told emergency operators what was happening.

"He wasn't making much sense to the operators," Hart told 7NEWS.

"Before I even got to my wife, the staff had already wrapped her arm with a clean towel, applying pressure," said Chris Klingensmith. "Then a man took off his belt and I wrapped it around her arm as a tourniquet until the 911 operator told us not to do it anymore."

The man who gave up his belt was one of the comics, Hart explained.

She said two other comics ran out to the ambulance to help the paramedics. Other staff members grabbed bar towels to help stop the bleeding.

"Everybody was just great," Hart said of her staff. "They all jumped in."

Klingensmith said his wife might have bled to death if the Improv Denver staff and comics had not reacted to the situation in a calm and confident way.

Paramedics told Klingensmith the belt was the correct thing to do and was critical to help stop Janina from bleeding to death.

Janina spent Saturday night in the hospital, she was back home Sunday night and said she is slowly getting better.

"I sit back and think I don't know what would have happened if we had been at home that night," said Janina.

Hart said the couple is welcome to come back anytime and enjoy the nachos they had to leave behind. Hart even saved them a DVD of the performer they had come to see that night.

Report a typo or inaccuracyCopyright 2010 by TheDenverChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.