Grayson Clamp, 3-Year-Old Deaf Boy, Hears Father For First Time

Grayson Clamp, a three-year-old deaf boy, is experiencing the world in a whole new way after becoming the first child to receive an auditory brain stem implant in the United States.

Grayson, who had been the recipient of an unsuccessful cochlear implant, was “born without his cochlear nerves, or the auditory nerve that carries the sound signal from the cochlea in the inner ear to the brain,” according to CBS News. He received the implant as part of a study currently being conducted at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, N.C. Dr. Craig Buchman, a lead surgeon on the trial, said that the brain stem implants have been used to aid adults suffering from cochlear nerve tumors, but that they were not very effective.

“One of the reasons we really were interested in this study, children have enormous potential because of their brain plasticity,” Buchman said.

The study has released a heartwarming video taken of Grayson hearing his father’s voice for the first time. His father, Len Clamp, is seen in the video telling his young son, “Daddy loves you.”