Soaring medical costs getting you down? Do-it-yourself tracheotomy!

Before we get any angry emails from concerned citizens: the title of this post was meant in jest and we certainly don't suggest that anyone actually try to perform surgery on himself.

The Associated Press lead says it all: "The 55-year-old Omaha man who performed a tracheotomy on himself with a steak knife says he did the same thing to himself two years ago."

Steve Wilder's throat has shrunken because of radiation treatments for cancer and, when he was having trouble breathing, he headed for the kitchen instead of the hospital. "I didn't feel no pain. I was just trying to survive," Wilder told a reporter. "I got relief right away. There was a big gush of blood, and I was able to start sucking in air."

Wilder's doctor even told him that he'd done a pretty good job.