We are sometimes fortunate enough to witness life’s unthinkable events. For Brian Travers of South Florida, a truly incredible slice of his life was captured for him to cherish, as well as for the rest of the world to enjoy and learn from.
Brian Travers gradually lost his hearing ability as an adult as a result of osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. Travers couldn’t hear at all in the beginning of 2008, after a cerebral hemorrhage put him in a coma for three weeks.
Travers relied solely on lip-reading until a cochlear implant surgery restored his hearing.
Deaf Man Receives Ear Implant – The First Thing He Hears His Wife Say Makes Him Break Down in Tears
Travers’ wife was wearing a window mask to his implant activation appointment, a face covering with a clear plastic rectangle over the lips that Travers created and sold during the pandemic to protect people while allowing others to read their lips.
“Can you hear me?” she asked, holding her hands over the mask’s plastic rectangle. “You’re not reading my lips, are you?”
“It’s kind of echoey but I can get it. Say it again,” he tells her.
“I love you,” she repeats.
Travers looks at her and cries. She leans over and comforts her in this overwhelming moment.
Erin Travers told the The Washington Post: “It’s almost like watching your child be born. All I’ve known is him deaf and struggling to hear. Just the pure joy on his face when he could hear me say ‘I love you’ is indescribable.”
It takes some time for Travers’ brain to adjust, but he enjoys hearing his wife and children. He hears unfamiliar sounds outside that he has to relearn, and he describes people as “cartoonish.” He still reads lips because it is instinctive for him, but he smiles when he can match what he sees to what he hears.
Modern science has literally given the deaf the ability to hear and the blind the ability to see. However, the wonders of such technology can be lost if we do not pause to witness moments like Travers breaking down with his wife. Let us work together to appreciate and be grateful for the amazing aspects of our modern day.
