Six surgeons at a Mayo Clinic in Arizona successfully transplanted the larynx of Marty Kedian, a 59-year-old Massachusetts man with chondrosarcoma, a rare form of laryngeal cancer. With a printing-business job requiring him to speak with people, Mr. Kedian was devastated by his declining quality of life.
When he was told he needed an operation to remove his larynx, he refused. “I didn’t want a laryngectomy,” he said. “I wanted a way to get my quality of life back.
” Mr. Kedian said part of what inspired him to refuse to lose his larynx was the birth of his first grandchild. “I want to read her bedtime stories with my own voice,” he said.
Mr. Kedian’s wife, Gina, went online to find a better solution and located Dr. David Lott, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon practicing in Arizona.
Dr. Lott, a specialist in laryngeal surgery, leads a team researching larynx restoration and transplantation. “I felt strange, and I wouldn’t go out anywhere,” Mr.
Kedian said. The cause of his cancer was not revealed. In many cases, the cause is unknown.
Meeting with Dr. Lott gave Mr. Kedian hope.
“I set my path on becoming a laryngeal surgeon and researcher to build a program that is pushing the boundaries of science forward,” Dr. Lott said, as reported in the Mayo Clinic press release. “Because larynx transplant is so new, we don’t know very much about immunosuppressive needs,” Dr.
Lott said, adding that his team hopes to understand whether there are ways to use ne.
