Mobilized for Hearing

Barbara Healey, 10, of Patchogue, N.Y. had almost complete loss of hearing in her left ear and considerable loss in the right as a result of a fall downstairs at the age of 1 1/2. She had to have special training in both speech and hearing. When Manhattan's Otolaryngologist J. Douglas Lake was consulted, he decided to do a difficult and delicate operation called mobilization of the stapes (small bones of the inner ear). For realignment, the 1/4-inch (or shorter) bones had to be magnified 16 times under a new type of Zeiss lens. Last week Barbara was home again, enjoying Christmas carols clearly for the first time, and hearing--instead of merely feeling the vibrations--as her black kitten purred in her lap.

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