9 Badasses Who Performed Surgery On Themselves

2. Self Tracheotomy - Steve Wilder

In 2008, Steve Wilder woke up all of a sudden. It became apparent what had woken him when he realised that he was unable to breathe because his airways had swollen shut due to a mixture of seasonal allergies and a bad reaction to past radiotherapy on his throat.

Worried that the emergency services wouldn't be able to get there in time, Wilder made his way to the kitchen, found a steak knife and slit his own throat by way of a DIY tracheotomy. This way, he was able to get air through the hole in his neck and into his lungs.

The mad thing is that this was not even the first time he'd done this, having performed another in much the same way a couple of years previously.

A tracheotomy is an extremely dangerous procedure to self administer, due to the proximity of the carotid artery. Wilder had an easier time that most, given that he had his previous scar to use as a guide, but is not taking any more risks and has had a plastic breathing tube permanently inserted into the hole through which he now breathes.