What It Was Like Growing Up Deaf | Teen Vogue

Health

What It Was Like Growing Up Deaf

And what's changed now that I'm an adult.

September 13, 2017

Instagram/@marklebarkle/Mark Burka

I’m Mark. I’m 25 years old. I’m a gay man living in Brooklyn, and I work as an analyst for Conde Nast. I love absorbing reality TV, singing karaoke, relaxing with my fluffy corgis, and most importantly, living my life in New York City. Oh yeah, one last thing — I was born deaf.

I was diagnosed with Mondini Syndrome when I was nine months old. Mondini syndrome is a genetic syndrome where my inner ear is malformed — in this case, my cochlea spirals half the distance a normal cochlea does. To help this, I received my first and only cochlear implant via surgery when I was two years old, in February 1994. A cochlear implant is a “device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear” according to the Hearing Associates of Central Florida — it is both an [...]

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