'Like assembling the Avengers': How the NHS rose to a very unusual challenge
NHS staff rose to the challenge of giving a former cancer patient her voice back after most of her tongue had to be removed
Dr Imogen Brooks thought she was “overreacting” when she went to her GP over a problem with her tongue. The 26-year-old then experienced the “massive shock” of being told she had cancer. However, following successful treatment, she now has no signs of the disease.
Unfortunately, the necessary surgery resulted in the loss of most of her tongue, which left her struggling to speak clearly. She said strangers would look at her “in fear” when she spoke to them. Others would “just smile and even not respond and make up in their head what I had said”.
After carrying out her own research on prosthetic tongues, she asked the clinicians if this could be done for her. Their response “was like assembling the Avengers”, she said, with eight people at her next appointment. “Everyone was willing to try.”
Now 30, the Londoner is believed to be the first person to receive a bespoke artificial tongue on the NHS and it has made a “massive difference”.
Despite its well-documented problems, we should never forget just how good the health service can be.
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