Jennifer Matthews: Steve Merkle is thankful for how his life has turned out. At 23, he got some unexpected news.
Steve Merkle: I had a little spot on my tongue, kind of a canker sore type of thing. That's when I got the bad news.
Jennifer Matthews: That bad news was tongue cancer. Surgery removed the cancer and a piece of his tongue.
Steve Merkle: I was doing pretty good for 13 years, and then it came back, basically in the same spot.
Jennifer Matthews: This time, more than half of his tongue was removed. Doctor Bruce Haughey says the tongue is clearly vital for speech.
Dr. Bruce Haughey: You can have a sound coming out of your voice box, but without a tongue, it's totally unintelligible."
Jennifer Matthews: But it's also critical for survival.
Dr. Bruce Haughey: It stops food and liquids going down into the lungs.
Jennifer Matthews: Doctor Haughey reconstructs the tongue using tissue from the forearm or thigh.
Dr. Bruce Haughey: We set about sort of a series of origami-like folding techniques using two dimensions of tissue to make three dimensions of shape for a tongue-like organ.
Jennifer Matthews: The folding technique provides better function.
Dr. Bruce Haughey: We aim for producing something that's just like the real thing.
Jennifer Matthews: After reconstruction, 84 percent of patients eat normally and no longer need a feeding tube. Speech also improves significantly.
Steve Merkle: Dr. Haughey did such a great job that, really, I'm kind of back to normal. I can eat everything and do everything I did before.
Jennifer Matthews: Now, after beating cancer twice, Steve says he doesn't take anything for granted.
This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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