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Historic Operation

A Detroiter's transplant procedure gives a man his voice.

ALAN ABRAMS

Special to The Jewish News

T

hanks to former Detroiter
Dr. Marshall Strome, a
raspy "Hello" has ended 19
years of a man's life without
the power of speech.
Timothy Heidler, a 40-year-old
Pennsylvania man, hadn't spoken
without the aid of an electronic speech
device since he was injured in a
motorcycle accident in 1978.
On Jan. 4, Strome led a team of 14
Cleveland Clinic physicians and nurs-
es in performing a groundbreaking
total larynx transplant on Heidler.
Four days after the operation,
Heidler said hello to Dr. Strome and
the patient's girlfriend. He then said,
"Hi, mom" to his mother.
Dr. Strome, who is chairman of the
Department of Otolaryngology and
Communicative Disorders at the
Cleveland Clinic, called the 12-hour

surgery "technically perfect."
Heidler received the larynx, or
voicebox, and about 70 percent of the
throat of a donor identified only as a
man from Cincinnati who had been
in good health. Like other transplants,
laryngeal transplants require a donor
organ that matches the recipient's
blood and tissue types. It took several
months for Strome to find the right
donor larynx.
The successful operation was the
first larynx transplant performed at an
American hospital. The only other
known attempt at a human larynx
transplant was in Belgium in 1969,
and the cancer patient died after the
operation.
Strome said Heidler's new voice is
not the one he had prior to his acci-
dent, nor will it he the same as the
unidentified donor's voice.
Strome said Heidler, who is taking
drugs to prevent his body from reject-
ing the transplant, should be speaking

in a normal voice in less than five
patients who are free of cancer five
months. He said there was a 70 per-
years after their larynxes are removed.
cent chance Heidler's new larynx
The 56-year-old doctor first
would function perfectly for the next
revealed his plans to perform the his-
five years, but cautioned his body
toric operation in an interview in The
could still reject the transplant up to
Jewish News Nov. 28.
10 years from now
Strome, who was born in Lynn,
In what appeared to be another first
Mass., moved to Detroit with his fam-
in the historic surgery, the med-
ily when his father, David, was
Dr. Str ome, appointed vice president of the
ical team also transplanted the
right, leads
thyroid to ensure that the
Handleman Company, the
his
tea m in music distribution company.
venous drainage from the larynx
surgery.
was satisfactory.
Stephen Strome, the doctor's
Heidler, who had wanted to be
younger brother, is president
a firefighter, was riding to a firefighting
and CEO of the Handleman
class when the accident happened. He
Company, now based in Troy. The
spent two years in a hospital, but local
elder Strome is retired and lives in
doctors were unable to restore his voice.
Florida.
Costs for the operation, which
Dr. Strome graduated from Durfee
Strome estimated in the hundreds and
Intermediate and Cass Technical High
thousands of dollars, were absorbed by
schools before leaving for the University
the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
of Michigan in 1957. He received both
Strome told reporters that thou-
his M.D. and M.S. degrees at U-M,
sands of people could benefit from the
and served residencies at Harper
operation, especially throat cancer
Hospital and U-M Hospital. ri

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1995

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