Is This Young Lady Able to Speak?

Factual Questions
1

TL;DR - British girl of about 16 (I’m guessing) is born with some horrible disease that disfigures her mouth. Through the generosity of strangers, she’s undergone several surgeries and was able to attend prom. Cute pictures accompany the article.

The article mentions that her first diagnosis was that she’d never be able to speak. Based on the photos, it looks as if her mouth is still somewhat misshapen, but it doesn’t look like speaking is out of the question. The article mentions her giving a statement to the newspaper, but that doesn’t preclude her having written it or signed it.

BONUS QUESTION: Since when do British schools hold proms? :confused:

2

Since about fifteen years ago (at least in these parts) and very much following the US model. Bah, when I left school the teachers just took us all to the pub.

3

They didn’t say explicitly, but I would assume that the surgeries have resolved the problem enough that she can talk.

What I don’t understand is why NHS wouldn’t cover the surgeries to start with.

4

The article strongly implies that she can speak now. If she still cannot speak, that is a very misleading or poorly written article.

That said,

It sounds like the problem was swelling of tissues in the inside of her mouth, so that would not necessarily be visible externally.

5

With the majority of high budget mainstream movie releases on a global basis coming from Hollywood and being set in the U.S., the U.S. is probably the largest exporter of culture globally. Shouldn’t be surprising that other cultures adopt many of the social customs that we take for granted.

Large example of this the cultural celebration of Christmas in China. There’s no religious connection for their celebration of the holiday…but they mimic what they have seen in the movies.

6

It seems that it would have, but according to an earlier story in the Shields Gazette:

I don’t know whether the NHS would have taken longer than the 12 years (and counting) that private treatment has, but it certainly wouldn’t have allowed them to pick their surgeon off the telly.

7

And despite the operation taking place in London, it seems this surgeon is living in the USA.

8

Ian Jackson, trained in Glasgow, is a bit of a pioneer with facial reconstruction. The documentaries about David, his now adopted son, are very vivid. Poor kid was born somewhere in Peru with a smashed-in gub, and Jackson basically rebuilt the whole front of his head. Some surgeons are trans-national.

9

The article also mentioned she had an enlarged tongue. That may block some sounds, depending on the size of the tongue I suppose, but I don’t see how it affects her vocal cords. Maybe the article meant that she can’t articulate words

10

An article in the Daily Mail from last year say she can not only talk but sing:

In anotherarticle the Mail says she will have her final operations on the NHS - which makes me think the problem was that Jackson was the only person doing the operations back 11 years ago so they needed a specific surgeon not available locally.

Re schools having “Proms” my daughter’s school had a dance for the 16 year olds but they didn’t call it the “Prom”. At 18 when most of them left after A Levels they had the Leavers’ Ball that sounded much like the Proms I’ve seen in the movies :smiley: