Enjoying sounds of success

Not yet 2 years old, Kathryn DeVleming’s life became progressively shrouded in silence because of a congenital hearing defect.

The resulting profound deafness did not prevent the Clarkston basketball player from living normally in an auditory world, thanks to a miracle of modern technology.

The exception, her coach Len Kelly wryly observed, is when she tunes him out.

“She always tells me the batteries are dead in her implant,” he said. “I just don’t think she wants to hear me.”

Except for a slight tell-tale speech inflection common in the deaf, you’d never know in conversation that, without her Cochlear Implant, DeVleming would not be able to hear.

She is a three-sport athlete at Clarkston. She was a member of last year’s state semifinalist basketball team and is the leading scorer on this year’s squad. She’s also a 4.0 student who aspires to play collegiately at Whitman College.

“I don’t know if it’s just my luck or a combination of my parents’ hard work and the people around me,” she said during a phone conversation. “But it’s been very successful for me.”

A Cochlear Implant enables the deaf to hear through a combination of external and internal electronics. Sound is picked up by a directional microphone, sent to a speech processor, which sends coded signals to a transmitter via radio frequency. All attach to her head magnetically and can be removed.

Those signals pass to a wire surgically implanted in the cochlea, the snail-like organ inside the ear that transmits sounds to the auditory nerve. The implant takes its place, stimulating nerves electrically that the brain converts that into sounds.

At the time of DeVleming’s surgery, prior to her fifth birthday, the technology was relatively new. The family was living in Portland. She was wearing hearing aids and attending Tucker-Maxon Oral School, where deaf children learn to talk.

“We didn’t do signing,” said her mother, Lynn. “We felt she would do better acquiring the spoken language.”

But her hearing, a victim of Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome, continued to degenerate. Though the DeVlemings at the time had concerns, they ultimately elected for the $40,000 surgery.

“Not everyone is pro implant,” Lynn said. “I didn’t want her to be more different. Our audiologist said that instead to look at this as limitless, not differing. It was certainly worth every penny for us.”

The only drawback athletically in wearing a Cochlear Implant, said DeVleming is that it’s not waterproof.

“I’ve always had a problem off and on when sweat gets into the microphones,” she said. “It screws up and I can’t hear at all. It’s like when you’re out of town and tune into a radio station and get that static.”

She’s started wearing a head band this year to absorb moisture which seems to have solved that problem.

Kelly said he must make sure he stands in front of her when talking to the team. The team has come up with hand signals and colored cards to make it easier to recognize Clarkston’s plays.

“It’s been a challenge for her, but hasn’t let it deter her from anything she does,” he said. “Defensively she’s kind of our stopper and she’s being asked to be an impact player for us this year.”

When asked if there are any regrets, DeVleming said that she wished the Bantams had placed higher in state, adding that the team, which lost by a point in the semifinals, could have. As for wearing a Cochlear Implant, she simply expressed gratitude.

“I’m extremely glad my parents made the decision. I couldn’t ask for better, unless I could ask for perfect hearing,” she said. “I enjoy being unique, it’s a part of who I am and hasn’t been a hindrance in life at all.”