Alive, but deaf In the Infectious Disease Unit, Teresa went through several weeks of intense treatment that included antibiotics by IV, blood transfusions, spinal taps and an encyclopedia of other tests.
It seemed like every minute of every day someone was poking something into our precious daughter. Following a few weeks of treatment, I noticed that Teresa wasn’t responding to attempts to wake her. It was a Saturday morning, so I decided to turn on the television in her room. I thought maybe she would react to cartoons.
She wasn’t facing the television and made no reaction to the sound that was now easily heard throughout the room. She still didn’t respond when I turned it up. I then turned it up again to the point that it was booming throughout the ward. I picked her up from the hospital crib and held her.
When she felt my touch, she opened her eyes. That’s when she saw the television and reacted to what she was seeing. It was at that moment that I knew she couldn’t hear. I didn’t want to face this new challenge. I was holding out hope that this wasn’t permanent.
Maybe she would soon fully recover from this horrific nightmare. But that never happened.