Nichol Reed walking with her son (MyFoxAtlanta)
A mother was unable to speak for nearly four years hopes her story will inspire other who have had tracheotomies.
Nichol Reed, 27, of Milledgeville, survived a terrible crash only to lose her voice. She was ejected from a car in that horrible crash.
Days later, she was stunned to see what doctors had to do to save her life. She found they had performed a tracheotomy. That's when a hole is cut in the neck to gain access to the windpipe.
The surgery reduced her soft-spoke Southern tone to a raspy, robotic voice. Months later, her windpipe collapsed and complications from surgeries that followed left her completely unable to speak.
But the days of reading lips, texting thoughts and jotting down requests are done. Over the last few months, doctors at Augusta's Medical College of Georgia have used cartilage from her ribs and skin grafts from her thigh to reconstruct her voice box.
It was two weeks ago that Nichol her real voice for the first time in nearly four years. Tammy Reed says her daughter has not stopped talking since she woke up from the surgery doctors performed.