Sydney Speaks!
Sydney speaks publicly for the first time after surgery...
Dr. Avis and Sydney appear on the O2 Breathe-A-Thon
Sydney appeared with Dr. Avis on the O2 Breathe-A-Thon sponsored by the Foundation for Airway Health and hosted by Peter Beckwith and spoke for the first time publicly about her recovery. She was joined by the filmmakers, Ed and I, to talk about the documentary. The organizers estimated that the 02 event reached over 1 million people.
The Breathe-A-Thon lasted for 12 hours, live and virtual, so we've broken out her appearance in four clips below. Peter and Dr. Howard Hindin, and the entire team, did an amazing job putting this all together. It was a huge undertaking. Kudos to all!
This first clip shows Sydney and Dr. Avis just before her procedure in St. Louis on September 8th. Sydney is very excited and looking forward to having the procedure done.
Video clip of Sydney talking about how she is very ready for MMA surgery.
The second clip features Sydney live on October 2nd at the O2 Breathe-A-Thon. After showing the Airway: Battle to Breathe Trailer several times throughout the event, Sydney appeared on screen to talk with Peter Beckwith about her recovery.
Although she is three weeks post procedure, she still experiences daily discomfort. She's lost significant weight because all her meals are liquid. When you watch the next video notice that her face is still swollen.
She has difficulty speaking. It takes effort.
From the moment we learned about her surgery, we wondered how much it would change her breathing and her looks. Although we are really eager to find out, it's still a little early to discover the answers. Sydney needs to wait for the inflammation and swelling to reduce. But if you look past the puffiness, you can see that her chin has moved forward. And her cheekbones are more prominent. These are good signs. It points to a positive outcome.
Listen to Sydney as she communicates the challenges of recovery from MMA surgery.
Sydney live at the Breathe-A-Thon
It's not easy when you feel less than one hundred percent to go live in front of so many people. It took some effort for Sydney to speak. She is not a professional performer who lives by the motto, "The show must go on." She's just a typical young woman in her mid-twenties that wants to feel well.
In this next video, Peter turned to Dr. Avis to fill in the blanks and get us up to speed.
Dr. Avis shares his perspective on Sydney's story and recovery.
Next, Peter turned to Ed and I, to get the filmmakers' point of view on chronicling Sydney's journey. We were honored to be included in this presentation. We hope it continues to shine a light (and some cameras) on the importance of the airway.
Producer and director share the behind the scenes view of filming Syd's journey.
We continue to film with Sydney and see improvement day by day. But the questions still hover and it feels like they will never be transformed into answers. We want to see results ASAP!
Patience...
