It’s not as strong as he wants it to be, but Dick Vitale has his voice back.
Vitale and his surgeon, Dr. Steven Zeitels, shared a video on Wednesday updating his progress. Vitale opened the video explaining that he had an exam and a scoping earlier in the day. Then, after calling Zeitels “a genius at what he does,” Vitale gave the floor to the doctor.
Zeitels explained the procedure, which he said he’d done before, though never on the same scale as he did with Vitale. He then shared the good news.
“It’s all healed,” Zeitels said. “Your left vocal cord is now tremendous and you should be able to begin announcing again. You can get back to what you love to do. At this point, I can’t tell you where it finally ends. But you can use your voice, from my perspective. The surgery came out beautifully — better than I even thought was possible. Because I designed this in my mind a few months ago.”
Vitale then talked about how lucky he felt. And while he’s not planning on returning to calling games this college basketball season, a return is something he’s targeting.
“Let me just say this; I feel today like I won the lottery,” Vitale added. “I have to be very controlled. I’m certainly not gonna go crazy trying to do anything — games, two hours right now. I’m shooting for next season, really.”
Just had my exam & scoping by Dr Zeitels ( still have the numbness ) thus can’t project like I will but I want you to hear the report from Dr Zeitels . pic.twitter.com/HPSlKtoge1
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) March 6, 2024
Vitale announced in July that he had vocal cord cancer. In November, it was announced that Vitale was cancer-free but wasn’t ready to return to ESPN or to calling games.
[Photo/Video Credit: Dick Vitale on Twitter/X]
