Teegan Jones
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Any mum will tell you that hearing their child try to speak is one of the most precious moments of their development. But Tracy Jones' daughter Teegan, has yet to make any recognizable sounds at all; and there's no way of knowing if she ever will. Now 23 months old, Teegan suffers from a rare medical condition that has left her vocal cords paralyzed. "My greatest wish is to hear her laughing or crying like any other child. From the minute she was born in April 1999, it was clear something was wrong. She was having trouble breathing, and while my other two had made a racket when they were born, Teegan just squeaked. Teegan was taken to the special care baby unit and put in an incubator. An oxygen pipe helped her breathe. Tracy and her husband Glenn were assured everything would be alright. But although doctors carried out lots of tests over the next five weeks they couldn't quite find out what was wrong. It was a worrying time as she didn't make any sounds we had to constantly watch her face to see if she was unhappy or distressed. Tracy stayed by her bedside throughout and Glenn looked after their two older children Zak now 8 and Sadie now 6. Doctors then carried out a bronchoscopy and it then enabled them to make a diagnosis. Vocal cord palsy is very rare in the UK. Tracy was very distraught and anxious, the doctors explained that there was no medication and we would just have to wait and see if the vocal cords would develop and kick start themselves. To allow Teegan to breathe the doctors performed a tracheostomy operation. After that Teegan didn't make any sound not even a squeak. Teegan was 9 weeks old when she left hospital. Caring for Teegan was a full time job and the pressure was immense. Tracy and Glenn separated, but they remain good friends and share Teegan's care as much as possible.
Teegan awaits her next hospital appointment in the summer and hopefully an attempt will be made to remove the tube. Both Tracy and Glenn await the day when their beautiful baby girl is able to chat away like other children, but until then they enjoy listening to attempts at mum and dad and of coarse she is trying her best to say 'no' [typical 2 year old].
We live in South Wales in the UK and thoroughly enjoy reading up online all the wonderful stories from the US.
Teegans' story featured in a Woman's Magazine in the UK
Update: Sunday 3rd June
Just had to send in this update last weekend Teegan said "MAMMY" for the first
time !!!!!!!!!!!!! It was fantastic it came out so clear with not that great
an effort she didn't block her tube off she just came out with it ,I laughed
and cried at the same time and although it's been a week it still gives me
such a buzz to hear it. She has about 8 words now in total and it is a great
relief that she has the inner strength to get these words out. I don't think
there will be any stopping her now she is determined that her trach isn't
going to hold her back, We are all so proud of her.
Update, November 2004: Had to email my good news to you all our little treasure has now recovered from the ordeal of being trached for four years. On march 10th 2003 Teegan's trachi was successfully removed. Although her vocal cords aren't 100% there was definitely enough room for successful breathing and excellent communication as you can imagine we are thrilled to bits. Looking back it was a hard 4 years but I wouldn't change it for anything. My husband got divorced which I think was largely due to the pressure we went through but we have remained friends throughout as all we ever wanted was the best for all our children. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing this site it has been a fantastic help.
