Mary’s daughter, Caroline, had a large tumor in her larynx that was starting to invade her esophagus. Mary and Risa fought against laryngectomy because they wanted to preserve her ability to speak.
She strongly advocated for her daughter to keep her voice after she was diagnosed with layrngeal cancer. She had concerns about the safety of the throat transplant and thought for a while that they should do the safer laryngectomy.
This page was last edited on November 13th, 2026.