Jon Smithie
Tribune
The scene seems highly unrealistic to me.
As you can see from the diagram, the vocal cords are actually quite high in the in the larynx, and behind the tracheal cartilage. They're oriented in a more horizontal than vertical direction, which makes sense since air coming up through the trachea makes them vibrate for vocalizing, such as begging and pleading. So the incision looks a little too low to me, but then I'm not otolaryngologist. In any case that's a minor detail. Even if the incision was positioned correctly, the baddie would still have to insert the knife through the skin and penetrate her tracheal cartilage knowing exactly how deep to go, and have precise control over the blade. And on a fully conscious and struggling patient no less! Otherwise he could go through the trachea into the esophagus and perhaps even into the vertebrae of the neck. It's more likely than not that he would cause severe trauma and bleeding, especially given the fact that he's doing this surgery with a fighting knife, not a scalpel. But even if he had the precision necessary to do a blind devocalization, there would be blood bubbling out of her neck, and she would probably be coughing and gagging violently as she aspirated blood.
I think the main and immediate threat in this scenario is the likelihood of aspiration of blood into her lungs. I don't speak Dutch, but I think maybe the bad guy is telling the victim to cough the blood up(?) but some of the force of the cough would be lost through the incision. I think she would have difficulty expelling the blood. Her reaction to both the pain of the incision and the inevitable aspiration of blood would have her in immediate and severe distress.
So don't try this at home!
Devocalizations are occasionally performed on dogs and cats, although not so much anymore when the only indication is the convenience of the pet owner; i.e. to keep the dog from barking or the cat from yowling. And of course humans undergo laryngeal and vocal cord surgeries for all kinds of different reasons. When appropriate, these can be performed using either a less invasive laryngoscopic approach (through the mouth) or direct incision through the larynx.
So I guess the bottom line is yes, it would be possible to do a DIY devocalization. Just like it would be possible for the President to retire gracefully.
I actually had an idea a long time ago for a story in which the bad guys (or good guys, depending on how you look at it) disguise themselves as EMTs, do a home invasion in order to kidnap the gorgeous, sexy young woman living there, intubate her, and carry her off on a stretcher. She would be absolutely unable to cry out or vocalize in any way, so this would be the world's most effective gag, with the added advantage over devocalization in not being necessarily permanent. Plus they would be able to control her breathing completely. They could extubate her at their convenience and then she would be able to scream and plead to her hearts content, so win-win.
