Complications from surgery take away his voice!

@ersmommy1 (12588)
United States
April 1, 2008 10:18am CST
Movie critic Ebert still unable to speak.Movie critic Roger Ebert will resume writing reviews later this month, but will not rejoin his syndicated television show because he is still unable to speak.He had undergone cancer surgery three times before the 2006 operation once in 2002 to remove a malignant tumor on his thyroid gland and twice on his salivary gland the following year. In a letter published in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times, the Pulitzer Prize winning writer and co-host of the "Ebert & Roeper" television show said a January surgery in Houston ended in complications, and his ability to speak was not restored. He said the return of speech would require another surgery. Would you have the surgery to get back your ability to talk? Or not?
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1 response
• United States
3 Apr 08
I remember him. Used to watch his reviews, but I kind of stopped. I think, if I lost my ability to speak, I would really want to get it back. Yes, I think I would go for the surgery. I guess I could still type to communicate, but there is something more personal about speech. It's not like it's unusual for people to be unable to speak. Deaf people manage to cope with alternate forms of communication if they need to do so. There are other ways for people to lose the ability to speak, ranging from accidents to infections or even cancer. People get by. I remember the first time I saw a man have to speak using a microphone like device. He put it against his throat and it made vibrations. He then used his lips and tongue to form the words while the machine replaced the original sounds which should have been produced by the vocal cords. I should think it would be possible to devise an invention to do this, now. We can place a pacemaker under the skin for years, why not have some device with a wire placed to pick up a signal from the nerve endings leading to the voicebox? If the wire could pick up the electric signal (which seems plausible) then the box should be able to create a far more 'normal' sounding than previous versions. Hrm...
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