A two-week-old baby finally “found his voice” and began crying – to the joy of his parents – after a rare operation in Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petach Tikvah.
The baby, from southern Israel, was born with a rare deformity in his vocal cords, causing not only difficulty in breathing, but an inability to cry or make any sound. He was able to breathe only via a small airway opening that remained unblocked by the vocal cords.
He was first diagnosed in Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva by Dr. Micha Aviram, head of the hospital’s Bronchoscopy Department, which performs procedures visualizing the inside of the airways for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The baby was then transported to Schneider, where Dr. Yoram Stern, who directs the Airways and Voice Disease Service there, was able to perform a complex endoscopy operation to resurrect the vocal cords.
“The baby moved us all when he first began to cry after the operation,” Dr. Stern said. “It was very emotional to see the mother so happy from such a trivial thing as a baby crying. I am happy that we were able to solve the problem and restore the baby’s voice.”