Casey was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss as a result of spinal meningitis at an early age. Without his hearing, he withdrew from everyone. His speech began to deteriorate and hearing aids did not seem to help. At age five, Casey became the first child in the U.S. to receive the multichannel cochlear implant (CI) in 1989.

Initially, he did not like hearing sounds through his implant and was frustrated with the challenges of learning how to use it. “I wanted to take it off and throw it away. It took a lot of practice and I had to go through speech therapy. I just remember it was difficult and I had to work very hard to be able to hear again,” he says. “At first I wasn’t able to figure out what a sound was or where it was coming from. I couldn’t even recognize my parent’s voices. Gradually, every new sound became a ‘high moment’ for me. My first high moment came at home when I was upstairs, and my mother was downstairs, and she called out my name and I responded, “Yes, Mom?” It was a shock to both of us that I could recognize her voice."

"Eventually, I could hear my parents even with my back to them, and soon I could talk on the telephone. I remember being able to order food from McDonald’s for the first time. I was going to public school by then and I had friends who could hear. We would talk on the phone and were able to communicate just fine. My life would be extremely different without my CI. I wouldn’t be able to communicate with the hearing world in the same way. If I had a child who was deaf, I would definitely choose the CI for them. I would also teach my child sign language, but give them the opportunity to hear. I thank my parents for the choice they made for me. I’m very grateful that they chose the cochlear implant. I didn’t ask to be deaf, but I know I would make the choice to hear with my CI. "