Radiation Treatments Lead Omaha Man to Perform Emergency Tracheotomy on Himself

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: cancer treatment, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) A man had no choice but to perform an emergency tracheotomy on himself with a steak knife when an allergic reaction caused his radiation-damaged throat to swell shut, suffocating him.

Fifty-five-year-old Steve Wilder of Omaha, Neb., suffered from throat cancer several years ago, which would often cause his throat to become so swollen that he could not breathe. Although he underwent radiation treatment and has not had cancer or radiation for the past four years, scar tissue from the radiation remains in his throat, making it narrower than it once was.

On the night of April 30, Wilder fell asleep while watching television and woke to feel himself suffocating. When the same thing had happened to him two years previously, he had been forced to cut his own throat open to survive.

"They think I might have some kind of allergy," Wilder said. "The only time I get a shortage of wind is in the spring. It's seasonal."

His wife called an ambulance, but Wilder was afraid that he would die before it arrived.

"I thought they might get here fast enough that I wouldn't have to do that," he said. "But I couldn't breathe no more."

Wilder ran into the kitchen, where he used a steak knife to cut a quarter-inch incision in his throat.

"I didn't feel no pain. I was just trying to survive," Wilder said. "I got relief right away. There was a big gush of blood, and I was able to start sucking in air."

The ambulance took him to the hospital, where doctors gave him antibiotics to prevent an infection, then a regular tracheotomy to prevent permanent damage to his voice. But the doctor told him he had done a fair job by himself.

Wilder reports that he feels no pain and is in no pain.

Sources for this story include: ap.google.com, www.knbc.com.