Christmas dinner never tasted better for Danny Voyes

Danny Voyes, of Baldwin, was able to eat Christmas dinner with his family this holiday season for the first time in four years.

Voyes, 32, was diagnosed with mild dysphagia — difficulty swallowing food or liquids caused by nerve or muscle issues in the esophagus — in 2007, and then severe dysphagia in 2014, and has undergone 62 surgeries throughout his lifetime to treat his condition. The operations affected his ability to swallow as well as speak, and left him unable to use his mouth to eat for four years, until last month.

On Christmas, Voyes was able to swallow food and eat with his family, after a year of successful swallow therapy — a non-traditional, innovative new treatment.

“I haven’t been able to eat in almost four and a half years,” Voyes told the Herald. “It’s just amazing to finally taste food again.”

As a result of his surgeries in recent years, he has been unable to eat solid or pureed foods. But in 2021, Voyes began outpatient treatment with a “speech and swallow” team at Catholic Health’s Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, and in December he was able to eat pureed holiday favorites.

In the past, he said, Christmas was a difficult and lonely day for him because he would be surrounded by family and sumptuous food, but couldn’t share it. He could not eat using his mouth, and instead he used a special pump and feeding tube that deposited food directly into his stomach.

Holidays were especially difficult, Voyes said, when he visited other families’ homes. At his house, he said, he could at least go to his room or walk away from the table to entertain himself. This year he was able to create a new, very different memory of the holiday when he ate with his family.

Voyes graduated from Baldwin High School in 2008, took classes at Nassau Community College from 2009 to 2011, attended Hofstra for a year, where he studied psychology, and then finished an associate’s degree at NCC in 2013. He continued his studies of psychology at Molloy University until 2018, and said he planned to finish his bachelor’s degree in psychology there once he is fully recovered from his therapy.

Since 2021, Voyes has been an outpatient at Mercy, working with the speech and swallow team three times a week. He underwent VitalStim therapy, which uses a small current, passing through external electrodes on the neck, to stimulate his inactive swallowing muscles.

One of those who cared for him was Jessica Hsaine, a speech language pathologist at the hospital. She explained that VitalStim is the only technology approved by the Food and Drug Administration for restoring swallowing function. 

“The nerves gets affected after surgery, so we have to improve the strength of the muscles in his throat, which squeeze the food down and protect his airways,” Hsaine said. 

To celebrate his recovered ability to swallow, Voyes’s first meal of choice last month was pureed pizza.

Hsaine said it is inspirational to see him each week, and see how motivated and happy he is despite the medical challenges he still faces. “Danny is very diligent, and has never missed any of his appointments,” she said. “We hit this milestone in part because of his commitment to therapy. I’m excited to continue on this journey with Danny, and hope to hit the next milestone soon — solid foods.”