When she was 17, Jan Christian was in a horrible car accident that crushed her windpipe and larynx. In the 35 years that followed, she got married, had children, and made a life for herself in which almost no one in her inner circle had ever heard her voice. Until now!!! Scream!

(By the way: Don't bother watching the video attached to that Huffington Post article—at least half of it is spent on a hardy-har-harlarious joke about Christian's husband thinking she was "the perfect wife" because her horrifically mangled throat kept her quiet all these years. GOOD ONE, BRO.)

Anyway, a magic mad-scientist-rocket-doctor came along and fixed everything and it was awesome!

"Not having a voice is sort of a disease of alienation," said Dr. Khosla, the otolaryngologist and director of the Voice and Swallowing Center at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio who performed the surgeries that gave Christian her voice back.

Over the course of seven surgeries, Dr. Khosla rebuilt Christian's windpipe and larynx using his engineering background and theories of how the wind affects jet engines. Though Christian's new voice is "far from perfect," Dr. Khosla told USA Today that with voice therapy, it will slowly improve.

Hella touching tale + the wonders of science? I LOVE shit like this!!! The only things that could have made this story better are:

1. If, in order to give Jan Christian her voice back, the doctor had to take away Samantha Brick's voice. (And no, I don't feel bad about telling a woman to shut up if she only uses her voice to reinforce patriarchy and hurt other women.)

2. If the surgery accidentally gave her Mel Torme's voice back instead of her own voice.

3. If, in exchange for getting her voice back, she had to become a mermaid.