Physicians at Memphis, Tenn.-based Le Bonheur Children's Hospital have reconstructed a voice box for the first time in history, according to WHDH.
The physicians performed the reconstruction on a 2-year-old boy born with congenital high airway obstruction syndrome, a condition that blocks the trachea and larynx and prohibits patients from breathing or speaking. The syndrome's mortality rate is at least 90 percent, according to Jerome Thompson, MD, an otolaryngologist and one of the physicians involved in the procedure.
The boy's condition was diagnosed while he was still in the womb after his mother was involved in a car crash. The boy then underwent fetal surgery, and afterwards Le Bonheur physicians implanted a trach in his throat and gave him a ventilator.
Two years later, physicians used parts of the boy's ribs to create a voice box and airway in the world's first successful voice box reconstruction. Five months later, the boy is making noises and only using the ventilator at night.