My voice doc in Denver actually had a paralyzed chord (I think caused by intubation during surgery in medical school). Thus, he got very interested in helping himself and others with vocal disorders. He is a neuro-laryngologist, Johns Hopkins trained. If you would like to e-mail me privately, I'll give you his name and number. Perhaps your friend could do a second opinion "phone conversation" with him. His voice is perfectly wonderful and whatever he did, he's fixed his problem!

I had a very conservative thyroplasty done in May to help offset the weakness of speaking with a paralyzed vocal chord for 20 years (after my RLN section). My surgeon has done about a dozen thyroplasty surgeries with great success. I was the first with SD, so we were extremely conservative in the positioning of the implant to avoid the impact of the spasms. It has given me the benefit of more volume with less fatigue than I had experienced in recent years, and I am better managing the impact of spasticity over time with speech therapy and daily singing exercises. Thyroplasty could very well be a good pursuit for your friend.

The teflon can harden into a granuloma, adversely affecting voice, and causing breathing problems too!