Pioneering brain surgery gives B.C. woman her voice back – CBC

Susan O’Sullivan ‘does not regret’ signing up for the trial

Feb 05, 2025

Twenty years ago, Susan O’Sullivan was working full-time with the Ministry of Forests and volunteering as a singer at her local art centre when her voice began to crack.

“There was some crack that started happening in my voice randomly, and I couldn’t understand what it was . . . you sort of put it down to, well, maybe it’s stress,” said O’Sullivan during an interview with CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops.

When her voice started cracking 100 per cent of the time, she received an expert referral to see Dr. Murray Morrison. Unable to get words out by then, she was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia.

Spasmodic dysphonia is a disorder in the brain that causes the vocal cords to spasm, interrupting people’s speech and their ability to speak.

Thanks to a pioneering study in deep brain stimulation (DBS) — in which a surgeon drills into a patient’s brain — O’Sullivan is able to speak freely again.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/williams-lake-woman-surgery-1.7447906