作为密苏里大学堪萨斯城音乐学院钢琴教育学助理教授，克里斯·马登（Chris Madden）的听觉能力至关重要。
每天，他都专注地听学生们演奏钢琴，帮助他们调整技巧。 他仔细而清晰地听笔记，在学习过程中提供有价值的反馈。 他还喜欢听自己13岁时学会的钢琴演奏。
“Starting at that age is relatively late compared to my colleagues,” said Madden. “No one in my family was particularly musical, but piano was something I wanted to do. I even paid for my own lessons to start out!”
但去年秋天，一天早晨，马登醒来时一只耳朵听不见声音。
“I thought it was a clogged ear from congestion,” said Madden, who didn’t think much of it at the time. 但几天后一切都变了。 “I was biking downtown and couldn’t hear a city bus passing by me on my left side. I knew something was very wrong.”
医生诊断他的病情为特发性突发性感音神经性听力，俗称突发性耳聋。 “I was devastated,” said Madden. “The first thing I thought of was how am I going to teach like this?” said Madden. “I just started at 威尼斯人娱乐城 two years ago and then something like this happens.”
His type of hearing loss is rare – about 1 in 5,000 are diagnosed each year according to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Doctors believed Madden’s case was caused by a virus. 他的医生给他开了类固醇治疗和打针，并告诉他只有10%的人能完全恢复听力。
“My doctor kept emphasizing with this diagnosis, every day counts,” said Madden. “With each person I talked to, I’d say, ‘I don’t know if you can get me in today, but here’s what I do for a living. I work at a conservatory and hearing is my life.’”
为了研究他的治疗方案，他联系了北堪萨斯城医院和它的高压氧疗法，称为HBOT。 治疗包括在加压环境中呼吸纯氧。 It’s a well-established treatment for scuba divers suffering decompression sickness, but has also been effective in treating hard-to-heal wounds and other health conditions such as sudden hearing loss. 在给NKCH打电话的24小时内，马登正在接受治疗。
在20天的时间里，他接受了2小时的HBOT治疗。 他将这个腔室与核磁共振管进行了比较，有一个明显的区别。 “The chamber is pressurized to 65 feet below sea level so my ears were popping quite a bit adjusting to that.”
Slowly – and fortunately – Madden’s hearing started to return. It wasn’t immediate, but by the end of his treatment, all hearing tests were back to normal. “My cell phone is finally back to the lowest volume,” said Madden.
“When my students play the piano now, I sit there and think it’s just nice to hear normal sounds again, because it wasn’t like that for a few weeks there.”
“When my students play the piano now, I sit there and think it’s just nice to hear normal sounds again,” said Madden. “Because it wasn’t like that for a few weeks there.”
马登将他的康复归功于他的类固醇治疗和HBOT的结合，以及他能够如此迅速地得到治疗。 And he encourages others to act fast when facing urgent changes in your health – something he also emphasized when sharing his story with KSHB TV-41 and 北堪萨斯城医院.
“You really have to advocate for yourself,” he said. “If it feels urgent, go straight to the doctor and say, ‘This is an emergency!’”