How Voice Tech Helped a Stroke Survivor Speak Again (Full Transcript)

[00:00:04] Speaker 1: The baby giraffe was again making trouble. It enjoyed knocking over trash cans and pushing things off the tables and onto the floor. There was a marching band assembling near the elevators on the big hallway. It is all bad news, he said. Me and the other doctors give him a 10% chance of surviving the next four months. I was hoping that someone would dim the lights. I was born in a small south Louisiana town at a hospital that is literally located on a bayou. My childhood was pretty good, full of wonder and limitless possibility. Things were so simple, I remember the large supply of lizards and dragonflies that would entertain me for hours. I am the oldest of two children born into a strong working class family. My father worked two jobs and my mom had one. They had to do that to pay the bills. We didn't have extra, but we had enough and I am grateful for the sacrifices they made. Ready to spread my wings, I found myself in a Marine Corps boot camp ten days after high school graduation. Early adulthood is somewhat a blur, but full of bad decisions and a total waste of money. I certainly know hard knocks, it is the only way that I would listen. Eventually I began to settle down. One year became two and now I look back at a 23 year career in civil engineering and construction. I began having dizzy spells that worsened to the point where I went to the hospital. Soon after I was in a hospital on a ventilator fighting for my life. I had suffered two strokes to my brain stem. This was the beginning of a long treacherous journey. Five hospitals and seven months later I was finally released. I was diagnosed with locked-in syndrome, meaning I am unable to speak, eat, move or communicate. I realized the giraffe and marching band were hallucinations, a side effect of my medication in the hospital. I thought at first that I was losing my mind, still that giraffe sure distracted me from some rough times. I lost a lot and I was coming to grips with all the loss. I lost friends, my business, my house, my dog. I didn't lose my girlfriend, because she sees something in me, I'm glad she does. She wanted me to have the best care, that care required me to move away. I'm not much of a crier, but I cried really hard when I had to leave that behind. Welcome to the upside down, I thought to myself. There is an unbearable amount of mental anguish with paralysis, enormous defeat is something that I contend with on a near constant basis. If I were to function with what I had left I needed some help. I began getting audio books on defeat and how to succeed after setbacks. I studied what similarity everyone had in common for the focus of my coping strategy. I continued to strive to be the best of myself, wanting to present that to the world. I decided I wanted to write, to learn from my experience and to try to translate those lessons for others. My sister helps me out, I wouldn't be able to do much without her and my parents help. I started lecturing about four months ago. I know that it is a ridiculous thing for me to do, but I am shining a light in the darkness. If I can keep going, anybody can. Before getting a synthetic voice from Eleven Labs, I communicated with a voice on my computer, but it sounded like a robot. I remember hearing my voice for the first time. It had been exactly three years since my stroke, which made it extra special. Being a non-verbal speaker isn't even a thing. Hearing my words in my voice makes it possible. That reality was created by Eleven Labs.

[00:04:08] Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, all I want to hear is, just say, hey mom, that's all I want. It was just so very, very special. It had been three years since I had heard his voice.

[00:04:22] Speaker 3: I love, I love his voice, I love hearing his voice. It was just amazing technology today that files from him from a meeting, isolating his voice and now being able to have conversations and talk, and whatever he wants to say, you know, can sound like him realistically now.

[00:04:44] Speaker 4: He used to call me when he was healthy before the strokes, and almost daily when he had a break during the day somewhere along the way, and it was so nice to be able to hear his voice. It's quite a blessing to be able to recognize something rather than it just be a computer generated thing.

[00:05:17] Speaker 3: Yeah, robot sound. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:22] Speaker 4: I'm so thankful for it, and to see how my son has fought to live. It wants to be encouraging to other people. Absolutely astonishes me.

[00:05:41] Speaker 1: Since I've had to move away, my girlfriend and I communicate through email, really talking. Not planning the next thing or worrying about tomorrow's schedule. Just being present with each other. Those conversations have become more valuable to me than any project deadline I ever hit. I notice things now that I never saw before. The way afternoon light hits the wall. How my parents' faces change when they laugh. After all, tomorrow is just a rumor. Today is my only appointment that really matters. I still have bad days, and many times my plans don't work. I am not much different from you in many ways. I don't have the answers. But I am happy to be alive and to fulfill my purpose.