Bridge number, Heegaard genus and non-integral dehn surgery

We show there exists a linear function w: N → N with the following property. Let K be a hyperbolic knot in a hyperbolic 3–manifold M admitting a non-longitudinal S3 surgery. If K is put into thin position with respect to a strongly irreducible, genus g Heegaard splitting of M, then K intersects a thick level at most 2w(g) times. Typically, this shows that the bridge number of K with respect to this Heegaard splitting is at most w(g), and the tunnel number of K is at most w(g) + g − 1.