THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
JOE AUSANIO has experienced the thrill of the crowd cheering him on as he wrapped up a victory from the mound of Yankee Stadium.
But even that couldn't match the excitement of knowing his 4-year-old son finally would be able to hear.
Joey Ausanio, deaf since days after his birth, received a Clarion cochlear implant two months ago. Earlier this month, it became operational for the first time.
For his mother Tammy, it was a Kleenex moment.
``I bawled,'' she said. ``Then I saw it on television and I bawled again.''
Joey Ausanio's case was taped for a television segment on the syndicated news/feature show ``Extra.'' Dad flew to New York the morning after he'd pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief in the Norfolk Tides' season opener, so he could be present for the taping of the segment. That night, he was back in the bullpen at Harbor Park.
That was 11 days ago. Today, Ausanio's in Canada where the Tides are visiting the Ottawa Lynx as part of a 10-day road trip.
The baseball season may be shrinking Ausanio's window of opportunity for one-on-one enjoyment of Joey's new ability, but it has not robbed Ausanio of overwhelming glee.
Ausanio talked to Joey the night before flying to New York to be with him. Earlier that day the device had been stimulated for the first time.
``Tammy always puts him on the phone to talk to me and he'd just say something, anything, into the receiver,'' Ausanio said. ``But this time he could hear me. I said `Joey?' And he said `Hubba . . . Hubba . . . Hubba.' Every time I said his name he said `Hubba.' That's what he's always said when he gets excited.''
During surgery on Feb. 28 at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat, Dr. Simon Parisier implanted the electronic device, which feeds impulses to the cochlea, the organ within the ear that translates sounds.
Until then Joey Ausanio, who will turn 5 in July, had heard almost nothing after losing his hearing - and nearly his life - in a battle with bacterial meningitis eight days after birth.
``The doctors told us his deafness was so severe that if he were on an airport runway facing away from an oncoming plane, he'd be able to feel it approaching before he could hear it,'' Ausanio said.
For the implant to work, Joey must wear a Walkman-type harness, with a wire running to the back of his ear. The wire magnetically attaches itself to the skin.
Joe Ausanio's response when he finally saw Joey use the device?
``The first time he heard sound when I was there, the look on his face was like, `What was that?!' '' Ausanio said. ``It makes everything else in life meaningless. To know that modern science and technology has given him the opportunity to be in the mainstream of society is amazing.''
For four years, the Ausanios had dealt with Joey's deafness by learning sign language.
``His younger brother Kevin (who turns 3 Saturday) signs,'' Joe Ausanio said. ``Even my mother, who's in her 60s, learned sign.''
Joey, meanwhile, has regularly attended Community Rehabilitation Center in his hometown of Lake Katrine, N.Y., since he was 6 months old.
The toddler years were tough on the Ausanios.
``The hardest thing was when he was sick and he couldn't tell us what hurt, whether it was his tummy or his head or his throat,'' Joe Ausanio said. ``And potty training was a whole different story.''
Detroit Tigers outfielder Curtis Pride, who is 95 percent deaf, crossed Ausanio's path a few times while both were in the Montreal Expos organization in 1993.
``I think, because of Joey, we have a special bond,'' Ausanio said. ``Curtis would always give me a hug and ask me how I was doing and how Joey was.
``I have a book at home in which Curtis' mom wrote a chapter about what it's like raising a deaf baby. In it she said it was no different than raising any other baby. I took that to heart.''
The Ausanios first heard of the implant option in 1994, but they spent a year exhausting the hearing-aid route before deciding on an implant.
Ausanio was still under major-league baseball's medical plan - he pitched in 28 games as a reliever for the Yankees last season - which covered nearly all the $60,000 procedure.
Tammy can testify that the device is working.
``They warned us not to get our hopes up, but Joey's been great and I haven't given it a second thought,'' she said. ``Joey is big into learning his months right now. Back in February we told him by April we'd go back to the hospital and try it and if it worked he'd be able to hear. He signed to me, `The same as Kevin?' I said, `Yeah, the same as Kevin.' ''
While there have been more than 1,000 implants in children in the last six years, Dr. Patricia Chute of Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat said there have been fewer than 150 Clarion implants on children worldwide. The Clarion differs in that it fires multiple impulses at once while other models fire single impulses.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration only allowed the use of cochlear implants in children beginning in 1990. But Chute had been working with adult recipients since 1979, when the original, more simplified implants hit the market.
``In the early days, the implant was single channel,'' Chute said. ``There are 20,000 hair cells in the normally functioning ear. One channel fired one spark. Now with 16 channels, the difference is like that of having a speaker system with a woofer and a tweeter as opposed to just a tweeter. There's greater range.''
Life around the Ausanio household has been a little strange the last two weeks. Rather than flush a toilet once, Joey will flush it three times, never having heard the unique sound. And he's jumped whenever the doorbell has rung.
There have been moments, however, when he removes the device and returns to the world to which he'd grown so accustomed.
``The doctors likened it to landing in China and not knowing the language,'' Tammy said. ``After a few hours it would drive anyone crazy. His brain is working overtime trying to absorb all the new information. For almost five years he'd been in a world of silence.''
There is a semi-bald patch behind Joey's left ear and a scar that resembles a backward ``C'' where the device was inserted.
``But other than that, he's no worse for the wear and hair grows back faster than you'd think,'' Tammy Ausanio said.
``When we were deciding whether to go through with the surgery or not, I finally decided that this is a hearing world we live in,'' Joe Ausanio said. ``For us not to give him the chance to hear when we have the chance . . . well, I didn't want him to say, years from now, `If you had the opportunity, why didn't you do it?' '' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
DAN CHIDESTAR
LEFT: Joey ausanio, 4, and mom, Tammy
RIGHT: Dad Joe Ausiano pitches pitches for the Norfolk Tides.
Graphic
TRICKING THE BRAIN INTO HEARING
JOHN EARLE
The Virginian-Pilot
KEYWORDS: HEARING LOSS IMPLANT by CNB