During the course of induction into general anesthesia of a 34-year-old for emergency cesarean section in whom difficulty in intubation was not anticipated, the passage of an endotracheal tube proved impossible despite multiple efforts with a variety of techniques. Intermittent ventilation by mask with maintenance of cricoid pressure did not prevent the deterioration of SaO2to 36% and the onset of bradycardia. The insertion of a laryngeal mask airway rapidly permitted manual ventilation to restore SaO2to 97% despite continued cricoid pressure. With the return of spontaneous ventilation, the laryngeal mask continued to be employed to administer 50:50 N2O:O2and 1% isoflurane until neonatal delivery, when midazolam-cyclizine-morphine were added. Since the period of hypoxemia of the mother was estimated to have lasted about 10 minutes, a prophylactic infusion of mannitol was given to prevent cerebral edema. The neonate did not appear unduly cyanotic at birth, with 1 and 5 minute Apgar scores of 3 and 8, and ventilation with 100% O2 rapidly corrected bradycardia of 50–60/min. The mother did well and only had a residual sore throat for 24 hours.