The first words 3-year-old Grayson Clamp heard were from his father; the little boy's mouth widened when he heard him say, "Daddy loves you."
Not only were they the words of a loving father, but they were also the first sounds Grayson has ever heard. According to CNN, the little boy was born without a cochlear nerve, which connects the brain stem to audio waves in the outside world.
Grayson received a cochlear implant, but the device was unsuccessful. His adoptive parents Len and Nicole Clamp decided to try an auditory brain stem implant for Grayson, making him the first child in the United States to receive one.
Auditory brain stem implants are available for adults. The Clamps heard about the implant because of a Food and Drug Administration-approved trial for children at the UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The parents did not hesitate to sign little Grayson up for the trial.
According to CNN, Grayson "now has an external speech processor containing a microphone." A battery outside of Grayson's body is the source of power for the implant.
"The processor breaks up sounds into their frequency components and sends that information across Grayson's skin to an implanted device," Dr. Craig Buchman, Grayson's surgeon, told CNN. The implant stimulates electrodes on his brain's cochlear nucleus, sending electrodes to where his cochlear nerve would be, if Grayson had one.
"He's sound aware, but we don't know what exactly he hears," Buchman said. "We're relying on the plasticity of brain to start to sort this out."
Buchman was added that the biggest risk of the implant occurs during surgery because the brain can bruise when doctors place the device.
Grayson's father, Len Clamp, told CNN that his son is incredibly curios, discovering all kinds of new things about his world now. He's particularly drawn to music and will run over to the radio to turn it up.
Len hopes the success of his son's implant surgery will allow more deaf children to experience being able to hear.
