无奇不有,地震致失聪老人恢复听力

美国华盛顿市一位75岁的老人在两个多月前因摔伤导致双耳听力丧失，而上周二（8月23日）发生在弗吉尼亚州5.8级的地震却让他的听力奇迹般地恢复了。据老人介绍，地震发生时，他正在女儿和三个儿子的陪同下在美国退伍军人管理署医院看病。强烈的震感将老人从床上甩出，之后摇晃感停止，随即老人惊讶地发现他竟然能够清楚听到儿子跟自己说话的声音。

医生表示，老人患的是传导性听力损失，主要是由中耳积液以及神经损伤引起的。听力恢复可能是因为老人所服用的药物和地震促进中耳积液的排除共同作用的结果。也有医生指出，地震中的晃动并不能促进中耳积液的排出，不过如果地震过程中周围有人尖叫的话，也有可能会震动耳鼓从而让积液排出。

For Robert Valderzak of Washington, D.C., Tuesday's earthquake was a miracle.

Ever since he fell and fractured his skull on Father's Day, 75-year-old Valderzak had suffered severe hearing loss. But after the 5.8 quake, he could hear everything.

"It was God's blessing," Valderzak told , his voice shaking with emotion. "It was a miracle for me."

Valderzak was visiting with his daughter and three sons when the quake rattled D.C.'s Veterans Affairs Hospital, where he is battling cancer.

"It shook me terrible -- right out of the bed," said Valderzak. "But after that it stopped. And my son talked to me, and I could hear his voice."

Tests confirmed Valderzak's significant hearing improvement. But his doctors think they have a medical explanation for the "miracle."

"He had conductive hearing loss, caused by fluid in his middle ear, as well as loss due to nerve damage," said Dr. Ross Fletcher, chief of staff at the VA Hospital. "A combination of a drug he was taking and the earthquake event itself likely led to him losing the fluid and gaining back his hearing."

Dr. Jennifer Smullen of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said the shaking itself might not have been enough to clear the fluid from Valderzak's inner ear.

"But if somebody was startled, and yawned or yelled, sometimes that's enough to clear some fluid out from the ear drum," she said.

In any case, recovering the ability to hear after going months without is a gift.

"People are usually very grateful, very happy, very surprised," said Smullen. "They'll walk around looking at things that they'd forgotten made noise. It's very gratifying."

Valderzak had adjusted to his hearing loss with the help of a special microphone and a crash lesson in lip reading. But the situation was far from ideal.

"The devices helped, but by the time I got them all hooked up, everyone had left and I was talking to myself," he said, adding that lip reading meant he could only talk to one person at a time. But now he can talk to all four of his kids again.

"Why did it happen at that time, with my whole family there? There was God's touch in there," he said.

75-Year-Old Veteran Calls Earthquake a 'Miracle'

Valderzak's doctors had just ordered him new, high-powered hearing aids. Now they're set to the lowest possible volume.

"It's a complete pleasure because the event was unexpected and brought a lot of joy to him and his family," said Fletcher. "This changes his outlook and his family's outlook."

Valderzak has been a patient at the VA Hospital since it opened in 1967.

"It's a pleasure for us to take care of him," said Fletcher. "He called it a miracle, and from his point of view it is. We think we know why it happened but it's still a miracle to him."

Valderzak, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, still has a tough fight ahead of him. But the earthquake has given him the boost he needed to take on cancer.

"All these things I've been through to get my hearing back, I've seen plenty of doctors, and none could figure out why I couldn't get it back," he said. "It was a miracle. And now I'm going to beat cancer, too."