陽光大衛私房粉絲網

大衛在美國星光舞台預賽時解釋他的半邊聲帶是癱瘓的，說話時只有另外半邊會振動，這可以解釋為甚麼大衛說話和唱歌時氣音都比較重，呼吸聲也比較明顯，但也是如此，形成了大衛的獨特音質。

Norse的迴響提醒了我可能還有粉絲不知道大衛聲帶殘廢的故事，正好我手邊有封當年大衛家人寫給大衛粉絲網站的信，信中詳細解釋了大衛半邊聲帶癱瘓的來龍去脈，在這裡貼出來給大家了解一下。

2004年大衛參加了Star Search青少年組的比賽，但是其實在比賽初期他就得了慢性支氣管炎，勉強撐到末期，那時候他唱高音越來越困難，聲音很容易疲倦，不能持久，本來以為他進入了變聲期，但是情況越來越惡化，看了醫生的結果說他半邊的聲帶癱瘓了（就像中風一樣），發聲時這半邊基本上不太振動，是細菌感染引起的，非常罕見，一般好發在老年人身上，少年案例非常少，無藥可治，只有開刀，但是開刀後不能保證還能唱歌，另外就是作聲帶復健。這也解釋了為甚麼他雖然贏得了Star Search的冠軍，但是卻沒有錄製唱片。

在那之後大衛便努力作聲帶復健，偶爾應邀唱一首歌，基本上他對唱歌已經不報太大的希望（曾經應邀到宏都拉斯去演唱，結果歌唱了一半，完全失聲），相信對熱愛音樂的他是非常大的打擊。到2007年，經過三年的復健，他的聲音開始穩定，唱歌也能維持45到50分鐘，因此才報名參加美國星光舞台比賽。我想這解釋了一些奇怪的大衛現象，第一大衛很不喜歡自己的聲音（他發病前和發病後音質非常不同，判若二人），另外他不相信他唱歌唱的好（他總覺得別人是因為他年紀小對他比較寬容，還有三年生病對他自信心的傷害一定很大）。大衛爸爸曾經對一位粉絲說過，大衛不覺得自己會唱歌，他只覺得自己很喜歡唱歌罷了，因此想把音樂給自己的感動傳遞給別人。

這像不像一篇勵志小說？可是這是千真萬確發生在大衛身上的事，當年只要他的毅力不夠一點，對音樂的熱情少一點，我們現在就沒有大衛的音樂相伴了。我們是不是非常幸運？

When David was on Star Search for a 2nd year in 2004, he arrived in Hollywood at the beginning of the show season with a pretty bad chest cold/bronchitis. He seemed to be getting better though and dealt well with the flem and congestion part of the cold and was able to sing reasonably well for the first 3 weeks he was on the show. However, after the 3rd week or so, the cold symptoms seemed to have cleared up but David was having more and more difficulty hitting higher notes and would fatigue after very short periods of singing.

At first we thought it might just be part of what all young boys go through as they started puberty, but the severity of the symptoms seemed like there was something else wrong. 3 more weeks passed and it was clear that David was having more serious problems now as it was affecting his speaking voice as well. At that point we even considered having David just drop out of the competition as it was now tremendously difficult for him to sing, but he didn’t want to just leave, he wanted to keep trying no matter what.

During the 7th week on the show, we finally went to a highly recommended ENT specialist in Beverly Hills who examined David and said that he didn’t see any flem or cold/bronchitis related side effects, so he would need to do a video scope of David’s vocal chords by running a camera up his nasal cavity and down into his throat so he could see if he could determine further what exactly the problem might be. Once completed, he took everyone into a room to watch the video and sat down with David, his dad and another specialist who he called in due to the unusual findings he noticed in the preview of the video. He commented that the video of the vocal chords definitely showed a physical problem that was not usually seen in young kids. The video was made of the vocal chords vibrating as David spoke as well as briefly singing, and in both instances only one side of David’s vocal chords responded properly. The other side barely moved and when it did, it was not at all in sync with the other one like it was supposed to be. This caused the one side to not have any resistance which made it impossible for the healthy chord to vibrate properly when speaking or sustaining a note when singing. The ENT specialist explained that this was possibly due to a viral infection settling on his chords, and then entered the one side of his chords resulting in “partial paralysis”.

He further explained that this condition is usually only seen in very rare cases, and then usually only in very elderly patients and that he had never seen it before in young kids. Furthermore, he explained that unfortunately there was no medication that he could recommended to help with this problem, that the only solutions were either surgery or possibly “vocal therapy” which means working with a “vocal therapist” doctor and that over time it could hopefully help retrain the problematic vocal chord to help get it to start responding again. This is similar to what happens to a stroke victim when they lose part of their muscle coordination and have to go through therapy to “relearn” how to use their muscles after a stroke attack. There was no guarantee that the vocal therapy would help, but it seemed like the best thing to try at that time in order not to possibly destroy David’s ability to sing in the future.

After serious consideration, we decided to just have faith and try the vocal therapy and hope that it with time would help heal David’s condition. David continued to sing periodically when asked, but had to restrict his singing to only certain songs and usually just performing one song at a time due to the fatigue factor. Over the next year and a half or so, his voice seemed to gradually start working better. About a year ago, David seemed to be regaining his strength and endurance sufficiently that he could start performing again and was able to work up to singing 45-60 minutes at a time without showing any of the prior problems of fatigue or discomfort. At this point, he seems to be feeling great and his voice seems to be better than ever. We feel very fortunate and blessed that David has been able to work through this difficult situation and seems to be ready now to continue sharing his musical talent once again after a difficult last few years.