Aum voice prosthesis made by Dr Vishal Rao
Nalini Satyanarayan's life came to a standstill six years back when her doctor diagnosed that she was suffering from cancer of the vocal cord. She had to choose between life and voice.
Nalini underwent total laryngectomy, a surgery in which the doctor removed her vocal cords. Thankfully, her doctor introduced to her an imported voice box prosthesis that would at least allow her to communicate verbally. The prosthesis cost Rs 30,000.
For five years, Nalini, 58, could use this magic device to talk to her friends, relatives and spread awareness about the harmful effects of passive smoking, the cause for Nalini's cancer.
Now, Nalini needed to replace the implant . "This prosthesis is placed between the food and the wind pipe. So, over a period of time small food particles choke it and you require a fresh implant," tells Nalini.
Interestingly, Nalini got her new implant a few weeks back, as good as the previous one, but this one for just Rs 50.
The implant has been created by Dr Vishal Rao, a leading ENT surgeon and cancer specialist with HCG hospital, Bangalore. He has named it Aum prosthesis.
A voice prosthesis, explains Dr Rao, is a device that helps patients speak when the entire voice box, or larynx, has been removed.
Conceptually, he says, a person speaks through his brain. It is the brain that modulates and coordinates speech, creates sound and then instructs the voice box to vibrate in such a way that a particular sound is generated.
Conceptually, a person speaks through his brain. It is the brain that modulates and coordinates speech, creates sound and then instructs the voice box to vibrate in such a way that a particular sound is generated.
Dr Vishal Rao
Through this prosthesis, air is sent from the lungs to the food pipe. The food pipe vibrates like a normal voice box and ‘cheats’ the brain. The brain gives instruction to the food pipe instead of the voice box.
And it takes less than a 15- minutes surgery by Rao to place the prosthesis between the two.
It all started when Rao met a poor patient from Karnataka. The man had lost his vocal cord to cancer and could not afford the regular prosthesis.
Soon after the patient left, Shashank Mahesh, a close friend of Dr Rao, came to meet him. Rao shared the story of this poor man with his friend and told him that he wish to raise funds to buy prosthesis for this patient.
Shashank offered to help him make the prosthesis instead.
The duo worked for two years with physicists, engineers and material experts to come up with this device.
They imported best quality silicon from Germany to make this prosthesis. After getting approval from scientific and ethical committee of the state regarding the safety of the device, Dr Rao applied for patent.
"We wanted to make an affordable device but didn't want to compromise on its quality. Interestingly, the actual cost of the product is Rs 47 and we are making Rs 3 profit per device," laughs Dr Rao. "Cheap doesn't necessarily always mean bad quality.
Around 25,000 people in India need voice box prosthetics every year. Eighty per cent of them are from economically weaker sections of society. On an average, such prosthetics cost between Rs 20-25000.”
Indeed, Rao's Rs 50 voice box is a new hope for patients who lose their voice to cancer and can't afford an expensive prosthesis.