How VitalStim helped Jordan Swallow Food Again

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Jordan, 6 years

"We have seen more progress in just a few months with VitalStim Therapy than in all the previous five years with other therapies."

Diagnosis: Choroid plexus carcinoma; received feeding tube (PEG tube) at age one

Treatment: Medalia Medical Group, Everett, WA

Result: Swallow function improved after 5 years of no change

Progress with VitalStim Therapy

As told by Jordan's father, Willie - Lynnwood, WA

When Jordan was only seven-and-a-half months old, he had surgery to remove a highly malignant brain tumor. For the next three years he battled the disease through two recurrences, a second operation as well as several courses of radiation and chemotherapy.

At one point we were told he had only nine months to live and even took him to Disney World on a trip sponsored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

His cancer eventually disappeared, but it left him with a terrible legacy: During his first surgery his vagal nerve was nicked, depriving him of his ability to swallow. From almost the moment he emerged from that first operation he has been on a feeding tube. During the five years following his surgery he had speech and swallowing therapy, but with little effect. Every swallowing test showed that he was aspirating food. We were left to wonder if he would ever eat normally again.

Then, a few months before his sixth birthday, we received a newsletter from the Medalia Medical Group, which is part of the Providence Everett Medical Center in Silver Lake here in Washington, announcing that Medalia had started to offer VitalStim Therapy.

Under the supervision of Marcy Freed, who had joined the Medalia Group, Jordan went through 15 treatments. At his sixth birthday, he was able to eat ice cream and cake frosting without any problems.

Jordan still does not have the chewing thing down yet and is still getting most of his nutrition through the feeding tube. But he continues with VitalStim Therapy once a week to retrain his swallowing muscles and build up their strength. Recently, he has gotten to the point where he can drink chocolate milk. He is excited about that, but he still does not ask for food, because it is still a lot of work for him. We think it will take another year before he is totally comfortable with eating normally. However, we have seen more progress in just a few months with VitalStim than in all the previous five years with other therapies.