What to do if, while defecating, stool is too long, requring standing to get fully out & into toilet?

This happened to my husband who required my istance, as he was standing over the toilet with a hard stool running from the bottom of the toilet into his rectum. He could not release it. He did not want to mess his hands by touching his stool to break it up nor did he want to try to move and risk getting stool outside the toilet bowl and onto the floor, so he asked that I ist. I did not know what to do as I had never encountered such a situation with my own defecation. I had to, obviously, react quickly. In doing so, I used the toilet plunger that was nearby to break the stool, but this created a huge mess. I would like to know how others deal with this issue in a sanitary manner.