A doctor who lost most of her tongue during cancer treatment has been fitted with what is believed to be the first prosthetic of its kind to be made on the NHS. Imogen Brooks, from Newham, east London, had most of her tongue removed and reconstructed when she was 26 after being diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Radiotherapy shrank the remaining tissue, which affected her speech.
After researching prosthetic tongues, Brooks asked clinicians at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust whether she could be a candidate. Michael Brown, a dental technician at the hospital, said: "We'd never made something like this before, but our team loves a challenge." Brooks previously relied on speech assistance technology for phone calls and said acquaintances and former colleagues would avoid talking to her in person. "It was so, so common for people to just smile and even not respond and make up in their head what I had said," she said, adding that strangers had previously looked at her "in fear" when she spoke for the first time.
Misunderstandings could lead to incorrect information during medical appointments and problems at work, which she said was "really frustrating". When she first asked about a prosthetic, she said the request "was like assembling the Avengers". "At my next appointment there were eight people in the room – everyone was willing to try," she added.
Source: BBC
