This opera singer lost his voice after spinal surgery. Then he met someone who changed his life.

Since joining choir in high school, Albert Garcia knew his passion was singing. He sang in church, started studying opera and performed at gigs. But in 2021, Garcia temporarily lost his gift when he was diagnosed with spinal damage that accrued over a decade and required surgery. 

"Because of where the damage was and how close it was to the vocal cords – and just how fragile the vocal cords are themselves – with that surgery, the nerve connecting to my vocal cords got stretched and so that caused vocal paralysis on the right side," Garcia, now 34, told CBS News.

He said the diagnosis of vocal cord paralysis hit him "like a brick wall."

"I had felt that music was the only thing I was particularly good at, the one thing I had constant in my life. So I went into a deep state of depression," he said.

Vocal cord paralysis occurs when the nerve impulses to the larynx — the area of the throat with the vocal cords — are disrupted, according to the Mayo Clinic. It results in a lack of control over the muscles that control your voice and can make speaking and breathing difficult. The condition can be treated with surgery or voice therapy. 

After his spinal surgery, Albert worked with a physical therapist to regain his physical strength. Then, he regained his voice with Dr. Marina-Elvira Papangelou, a speech-language pathologist at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston.

It took nearly a year of therapy, but thanks to Papangelou, Garcia regained his ability to sing. "He has made a tremendous change. He has learned to breathe properly again, to bring his pitch down and focus his voice," she told CBS News via email. 

Garcia thanked Papangelou in the best way he knew how, with a performance. The song he chose was a meaningful one: "For Good" from the Broadway musical "Wicked." 

"This is where they sing to each other about how important they are to each other," Garcia said. "And if they never meet again, that at least they know they've been a good influence and a good change in each other's lives."

"It really spoke to me because it goes, 'It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime. So let me say before we part, so much of me is made of what I learned from you. You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart.' That, I feel like, is the exact relationship I had with my speech therapist because I just learned so much from her."

Garcia also presented Papangelou with a plaque inscribed with the lyrics. "You've not only changed my life, but you've also given back what I thought I was never going to get. So, thank you so much," he said to her through tears as he presented the gift.

Papanagelou is modest about the impact she made. "I think that I made a difference in his life, but I don't think it was me. I think it was him because he did all of the work," she said. 

Unlike the characters in Wicked, Garcia and Papangelou have crossed paths again. She's no longer his therapist – but instead a friend in the audience at his recent opera performance. 

Caitlin O'Kane

Caitlin O'Kane is a digital content producer covering trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift.