Google's Larry Page goes to Adele's doctor over 'voice paralysis'

The Google boss said he had decided to finance "a significant research programme" led by Dr. Zeitels.

His wife, Lucy, will help oversee the research project at the Boston-based Voice Health Institute.

The billionaire CEO did not disclose how much he is donating to fund the effort but Bloomberg News citing an unnamed source described the amount as more than $20 million.

Page opened up for the first time about the condition that forced him to stop speaking temporarily last year in a lengthy post on Google+, his company's social networking service.

He also disclosed that he was diagnosed at that time with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition that he described as benign, although some medical sources say in rare cases it can increase the risk of thyroid cancer.

"It's unclear if this is a factor in the vocal cord condition, or whether both conditions were triggered by a virus," Page, 40, wrote. He said his problems started 14 years ago after he suffered a severe cold, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Page did not say why he was publicly discussing his voice ailment now. He had previously offered no details about his diagnosis after he was forced to skip several public appearances last summer.

At that time, Google officials said only that Page needed to rest his voice to recover from an undisclosed problem.

The condition continues to leave him sounding hoarse and can also affect breathing, but Page wrote, "I'm fully able to do all I need to at home and at work.Overall, I am feeling very lucky."

The cause of the condition, known as vocal cord paralysis, is still unexplained, according to Page.

Page last summer assured Google employees that there was "nothing seriously wrong." But Wall Street analysts and corporate governance experts said he had an obligation to provide investors with an explanation for his condition.

He said he had decided to finance "a significant research programme" led by Dr. Zeitels, a Harvard Medical School surgeon and voice expert who's treated well-known singers in Boston including Adele, Julie Andrews, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Roger Daltrey of The Who.

Google's stock has been surging in recent months. It fell slightly after Page's announcement on Tuesday , but it recovered quickly and ended the day up more than 1 percent at $887.10.

"It's always a source of concern" when a CEO has health problems, said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis, but he noted that investors seemed reassured by Tuesday's announcement. "It's great to have a little more disclosure here."

Page wrote that his problem was first diagnosed after a bad cold made him hoarse 14 years ago. When his voice didn't fully recover, Page said, a doctor told him that nerve paralysis in his left vocal cord was impairing its ability to move properly.

"Despite extensive examination, the doctors never identified a cause," Page wrote, "though there was speculation of virus-based damage from my cold."

Then last summer, after another bad cold, Page said his right vocal cord developed a similar problem that limited its ability to move.

He said he's been told it's "extremely rare" for both vocal cords to suffer paralysis of this nature.

Although he downplayed the effects of the condition, Page wrote that vocal cord nerve issues can also affect breathing, "so my ability to exercise at peak aerobic capacity is somewhat reduced."

But he added, "that said, my friends still think I have way more stamina than them when we go kite-surfing."

Even so, a local voice expert said Page could still face more serious symptoms in the future.

It's not uncommon for patients to have one vocal cord impaired and receive treatment that relies on the healthy cord to produce a normal voice, said Dr. Arman Abdalkhani, an otolaryngologist with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation told the Mercury News.

But he said it's "extremely rare" to have both vocal cords paralysed.

"A patient with true bilateral paralysis could have a very poor voice and there's very little you can do to make it better. And while it's rare, some even require a tracheotomy tube to help them breathe fully," he added.

Abdalkhani said, Page may still face challenges performing his duties as a very public CEO.

"The major issue is clarity of speech. And you could get vocally fatigued after just 20 minutes of speaking if one cord is paralysed," Abdalkhani added.

While seeking treatment and information about his condition, Page said he has met with a number of specialists, including Zeitels, who he said "is really excited about the potential to improve vocal cord nerve function."

Zeitels was the subject of a profile in The New Yorker magazine earlier this year. The British singer Adele publicly thanked him when she accepted a Grammy award last year.

Daltrey has also credited Zeitels with removing a precancerous node from his vocal cord just weeks before he sang at the 2010 Super Bowl.