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Silence
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Easing the Journey from Silence


Watching his daughter twirl on stage with other 3-year-olds, Barton G. Weiss tried hard to maintain his composure. When the girls leapt, when they stumbled, when they recovered with the innocent grace of the young, he felt a sense of immense pride—and relief.

Jadin was just like the other budding ballerinas. She was moving with the music. Though born profoundly deaf, she could hear every sweet sound.

“She looked like a little doll,” remembers Weiss, the Miami-based event-planning maverick and renowned restaurateur known as Barton G. “As a parent, you’re relieved when you see that your child is on par developmentally with her normal-hearing peers.

Barton G. Weiss and Jill Viner founded The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Foundation, which has established a new family resource center, providing comprehensive information and support for families affected by childhood hearing disorders.

“And it was all possible because of the world-class cochlear implant specialists right here at UM.”

At 5 months old, and again at 9 months, Jadin received cochlear implants from Thomas Balkany, M.D., director of the University of Miami Ear Institute, a world authority on the surgically implanted electronic devices that produce hearing sensations by stimulating nerves in the inner ear.

To show his thanks and to help other families, Weiss and his friend Jill Viner, founded The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Foundation in 2008. Last spring Weiss announced the foundation was making a $5 million gift to establish The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Cochlear Implant Family Resource Center at the UM Ear Institute, a division of the nationally ranked Department of Otolaryngology.

Designed to help hearing-impaired youngsters make the transition from silence to the hearing world, the state-of-the-art resource center serves as a national hub for deaf children and their families. Its multidisciplinary team provides information, education, counseling, guidance, support, and resources about hearing disabilities and cochlear implant availability and technology. Staff members—all of whom have extensive experience working with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and families—include a center director, an audiologist, a psychologist, and an auditory-verbal therapist, in addition to 18 other full-time members of the cochlear implant team.

Weiss says he realized how crucial the resource center was when he recalled the frightening path he and his family traveled after Jadin’s birth.

“A resource center would have helped ease the pain, give us hands-on assistance, and educate us about the things we didn’t expect because you don’t know what to expect,” Weiss says. “UM has brilliant doctors and an outstanding ear institute. The resource center will enhance that care.”

“It’s amazing to see this project develop into something so significant,” Viner says. “I believe that happened because it’s coming from the heart.”

For Fred Telischi, M.E.E., M.D., chair of otolaryngology and one of four cochlear implant surgeons at the UM Ear Institute, it’s a dream come true.

“We are immensely grateful to Barton and his foundation for the vision, enthusiasm, hard work, and generosity in establishing The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Cochlear Implant Family Resource Center,” says Telischi, who is also a professor of otolaryngology, neurological surgery, and biomedical engineering. “Barton is deeply committed to helping the deaf children and their families in our community cope with their disabilities and thrive after cochlear implantation.”