JERUSAELM, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- An advanced surgery conducted in Israel restored a woman's ability to speak again after 33 years, as published Friday by the Hebrew-language newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth."
The woman, Sigalit Ben-Atar, from the northern city of Nahariya, was seriously injured in the head and neck in a car accident when she was 10 years old, and since then she has been unable to speak, smell, and breathe from the nose and mouth.
To breathe, the doctors had to attach a tube to her throat, with her trachea detached from her throat and vocal cords.
Over the years she has been treated by many doctors and hospitals, but her condition has not improved until the recent surgery.
In this surgery, taking place at the "Kaplan" Hospital in the center of the Israel, she underwent a complex reconstruction of her vocal cords. The doctors connected the trachea to the throat and restored the vocal cords.
Ben-Atar will soon also have to undergo plastic surgery in the area where the tube is attached to her neck.
Ben-Atar told the newspaper that "it's just a miracle. My life has changed. Everyone knows me in Nahariya, and suddenly people are shocked that I can speak. My husband and children finally hear me. Today I can swim and dive, breathe and smell. I even sing in the shower."
