Surgery to quieten the yelling of a demented old man.
The 84-year-old man's incessant yelling caused him to be unmanageable in all settings--at home with his aged wife, in nursing homes, and on the medical and psychiatric floors of a Veterans Administration Medical Center. A host of behavioural and pharmaceutical interventions were attempted unsuccessfully. Finally, it was proposed that a single, recurrent laryngeal nerve be crushed in order to 'render his voice to be a very acceptable soft tone'.
Gafner
G
G
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tucson, Arizona.
D000368:Aged; D032763:Behavior Control; D026686:Beneficence; D003704:Dementia / Q000601:surgery*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007823:Laryngeal Nerves / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D018570:Risk Assessment