Rare vocal cord disorder can’t keep a songwriting champion down
by Chip Colandreo of Lake Mary Life
Lying in a hospital bed, 16-year-old Samantha Trattner received a succinct and emotionally devastating diagnosis – she had severe asthma, and she should stop singing for the rest of her life.
“I just remember bursting into tears,” Samantha recalls. Nicknamed “The Jukebox” since she was two years old, Samantha’s big voice and equally substantial personality were already earning her acclaim at Seminole High School and around Central Florida as an up-and-coming singer/songwriter. Guitar in hand, she was entertaining classmates, community groups, and her synagogue as often as she could, honing her skills at live performance and musical composition.
Afflicted with asthma-like symptoms since she was a pre-teen, however, Samantha’s breathing problems came to a head once she started high school and quickly threatened to put her burgeoning music career to an early end. The simplest scents, like perfumes, smoke, or even nearby body lotion, sent Samantha into breathing spasms. She missed dozens of classes early in her Seminole High career due to the condition, and Samantha eventually wound up in the hospital for nine days in a desperate attempt to sequester her from the asthma triggers in order to figure out what, exactly, was going on.
“No one really knew what to do, but the doctors were sure singing was out of the question as long as I kept having these asthma problems,” says Samantha. “Singing is more than a hobby to me, I wanted to pursue music as a career, but I figured that dream was over until Dr. Santini walked into my hospital room.”
Dr. Celia Santini is a neuromuscular therapist at Florida hospital and an expert in a rare asthma-like condition known as vocal cord dysfunction (VCD). In patients with VCD, the vocal cords move erratically when breathing in, causing a victim’s throat to tighten and triggering physical spasms that look and feel just like asthma. Being so rare, VCD is often misdiagnosed as asthma. and Dr. Santini believed just such a misdiagnosis was happening to Samantha.
“Dr. Santini believed I was the victim of that kind of misdiagnosis,” says Samantha. “She thought I had VCD, and she told me she had a 99 percent success rate in treating people with the condition. We began doing breathing exercises and other therapy, and sure enough, I was able to control my breathing and prevent the attacks.”
A few days later, Samantha was released from the hospital, and she knew just what to do when she got home.
“I sat down and wrote the song, “Ani Ma’amin,” which is Hebrew for ‘I Believe,’” Samantha says. “The song is about my struggles and the belief and faith that got me through it all.”
The song was a hit among friends and family, and Samantha decided to enter it into a national singing/songwriting competition sponsored by the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY). The biannual competition involves more than 10,000 high-school-age Jewish youth around the country in creative areas of visual art, dance, photography, poetry, drama, and music.
Samantha was invited to perform her song at the NFTY competition finals in Texas this past February, but her battle with VCD wasn’t over yet. A rash of brush fires struck Central Florida just as Samantha was preparing to leave, the smoke triggering a new round of attacks on her vocal cords. Worried she would lose her chance to perform, Samantha called Dr. Santini and worked through a series of exercises before and after she flew off to Texas.
Samantha was able to get her breathing under control, and she took the stage in front of a crowd more than 1,000 strong to perform “Ani Ma’amin.” Wouldn’t you know it, she took home first prize.
“Just the opportunity to get up and play was so amazing, and I received so much feedback from people who heard my message,” says Samantha. “VCD is rare, but when it happens, it is so often misdiagnosed and the people who have it can’t get help and lose hope. I just want them to know they’re not alone and that things can get better.”
Now a national songwriting champion, Samantha plans to use the award to help get her music career off the ground. With a major obstacle behind her and a bright future ahead, there’s no telling where Samantha’s voice will take her now.
Chip Colandreao is an Associate Publisher for Lake Mary Life. This article was originally published in the July/August issue of Lake Mary Life.
Lake Mary Life Magazine is the premier lifestyle publication in the Lake Mary area, dedicated to publishing positive and uplifting stories about our community. Lake Mary Life is a partner of GalTime Orlando.
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