The Story of Instant Voice

Several years ago Dr. Terry Chriss, PhD, watched over his mother in the hospital, lying in bed, fully alert and oriented, but simply unable to speak. Terry and his sister knew that their mother had both physical as well as emotional needs that she wanted to communicate, but she simply couldn't talk. Because of severe weakness brought on by septic shock, she was unable to move her hands or other parts of her body, and could only raise her eyes to respond to yes/no questions. Between Terry, his sister and various medical caregivers, they tried their best to ask appropriate questions and guess at what his mother was trying to communicate.

This was extremely frustrating to Terry's mother as well as to Terry and his sister, and no real, effective communication was ever accomplished before she died. After the passing of Terry's mother, he decided that there had to be a better way for family members and medical professionals to communicate with patients who have temporarily lost the ability to speak. With Terry's background in software development and computer based instrumentation, he knew that there had to be a way to develop a system that would give these patients the ability to fully communicate their physical as well as their emotional needs to their doctors, nurses, caregivers, family and friends.

The result of Terry’s time and dedication to this quest is Instant Voice!