U U 4v 0 0 0 JM Th tteet//W desaMac 7,21 statement Magazine Editor: Trevor Calero Editor in Chief: Jacob Smilovitz Managing Editor: Matt Aaronson Deputy Editor: Allie White Designers: Sara Boboltz Corey DeFever Photo Editor: Jed Moch Copy Editors: Erin Flannery Danqing Tang Cover Photo: Jed Moch The Statement is The Michigan Daily's news magazine, distributed every Wednesday during the academic year. To contact The State- met e-mail calero@michigandaily. com THEJUNKDRAWER random student interview Heliot Hi. Is this Chris [last name redacted]? Yes. This is Chris. Hi, this is Dani and I'm calling from The Michigan Daily for the Random Student Interview. I was wondering if you could talk to me for a little bit. Yeah, that'd be fine. Are you excited that it's so nice outside? Oh, hell yeah. I've been wearing shorts and a T-shirt outside. That's a little bit overenthusias- tic. It's not that warm. No, this is great. I just like warm. Why are you in Michigan then? Born here and I just haven't left yet. [Laughs] Good answer. So, sum- mer is coming soon. You have any exciting plans? Job? I got a cool job in Ann Arbor, work- ing with [company name redacted]. So that'll be good. It's political. I'm a PoliSci major. So it's right up my alley. That's really exciting. I'm happy for you Chris. Thank you. Even though you don't really know me. I'm glad you're happy for me. What's with the dog? In your Facebook profile picture? Oh, my dog, Angel. The one with the devil tail and the horns? Oh God. [Laughs] It was, like, Pokdmon Profile Picture month. That's what that is. I'm kinda a nerd. But everyone likes some dorky things. I know, like, Lord of the Rings. Oh. Badass. Who doesn't like Lord of the Rings? And I'm not just talking about the movies, but people who read the books, like, they gotta like it. I'm gonna tell you something, some people might think it's kinda dorky, but I read the books when I was 12. Oh my God. Same here. Oh, we have so much in common. We really do have so much in com- mon. I have to move on though cause my editor isn't going to want to print a five minute con- versation about Lord of the Rings. Well, we can move on to Harry Pot- ter. Harry Potter is different. People love comparing the two. But you can't really compare the two. They're so different. They're different fantasy types. Yeah, and Harry Potter is, like, about Harry Potter. But Lord of the Rings is about all of Middle Earth... It's a whole epic; it's a whole epic story. Mmm hmm. So do you like "The OC"? Oh, yeah, I still ... I watched every episode when I was in high school. Oh my God. But, season one was just this pinnacle of brilliance that they never reached again. Yeah. It just never quite came ... it was close but it was never coming back. I'm really familiar with seasons one and two 'cause I have them on DVD, but seasons three and four I only saw once. So let's just keep it to seasons one and two... I don't remember that much about any of them 'cause I've only seen all of them once. But my high school girlfriend made me watch all of them with her. What's your favorite scene? Do you have one that sticks out in your mind? Like, did you cry when Ryan had to leave at the end of season one? Or was it just so awe- some when Summer and Seth had that kiss in the rain? The Spider- man kiss. I got a little teary-eyed when you brought up the Ryan leaving. [Pause] But my favorite scene probably involves Seth because he was hilari- ous. Seth and Summer: one of the greatest TV couples ever. Oh my God, so dramatic, so funny, so good together. - Chris is an LSA junior. His dog Angel suffers from an identify crisis. hearing loss. Because Zazove can communicate Besides not being able to communicate during in sign language, some deaf patients drive hours surgeries, Zazove said many deaf physicians - of to see him. which there are now more than 100 in the coun- However, the average deaf person. earns try - have trouble using stethoscopes to listen to $25,000 or less annually, and Zazove says many heart rates. can't afford to see doctors. Zazove can hear through a stethoscope, but "Some of them get Medicaid," he said. "But other deaf doctors use amplified or visual stetho- because of the economy, every state is trying to scopes. One veterinarian Zazove knows has cut back." learned to read heart beats by touching her hand Zazove admits he's not sure how many of his to an animal's heart. hearing patients realize he's deaf. Some think he "She can tell if it's a murmur or anything has an accent, on account of his muffled speech, because she's developed the ability to do that," he and ask if he's Ital- ian because of his last " a.f are much more attentive name. Dveafphysiie "Sometimes they to their patients ... people tell me that all say 'What country are you from?' and I the time,'I love the way you look at me say 'From Chicago,' " and listen to me.'" Zazove said. SCitg ER P R E S E N T S the ONLINE CLASSIFIED RENTAL MAP *p ~ - r r, 23 94 20, L : . V n At bor i ©tj .x 0 Two and a half years ago, Zazove received a cochlear implant - a surgically implanted device in the ear that helps pick up sound. Since the implant, Zazove said more of his patients are making the connection that he's deaf. Though the device is supposed to improve hearing, Zazove said his doesn't work very well. A year and half ago, he got a second implant which has slightly improved his hearing. "It works better, and it's only getting better, but it's not what I had hoped," he said. Instead, Zazove relies heavily on lip reading to converse with his patients and others in his life. He said people who lip read can only understand about 20 percent of what someone is saying, and must rely on context to fill in the rest. "I know we're talking about me, my life," he said of our conversation at an interview last month. "If we were talking about Dick Cheney paying his rent, and you didn't tell me that, I'd probably have no idea. It would take me a while to figure that out." Zazove noted that lip reading comes in handy when communicating with patients who have lost their voice from being sick or after coming out of surgery. "I can read their lips, and other people can't understand them," he said. While lip reading may help him communicate with patients, it becomes a problem during sur- gery when doctors wear surgical masks. "It's hard," he said. "People are talking, and you have no idea what they're saying." Zazove admitted this was an issue while learn- ing how to perform surgeries in medical school. To make up for the lack of auditory learning, he would have to ask many questions and pay extra attention. Today, Zazove is working with the Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Losses to develop a clear mask that allojws deaf doctors and patients to read lips. The mask is just starting to be adapted by pro- fessionals in the medical field, and Zazove said it will make work easier for future generations of deaf physicians. said. "It's amazing, it really is, what people can do." Despite his hearing loss, Zazove said patients rarely express concern about his diagnoses. "Most people figure if you're an M.D. and you went through med school and residency and are certified, you know what you're doing," he said. In some cases, his deafness helps establish bet- ter relationships with his patients. Zazove said he thinks his disability may inadvertently lead him to providing better patient care. "I would be willing to bet as a general rule that deaf physicians are much more attentive to their patients. They have to be to focus," he said. "Peo- ple tell me that all the time, 'I love the way you look at me and listen to me."' Joyce Kaferle, the medical director in the Department of Family Medicine, has worked with Zazove since the early 1990s. She said she has found his hearing loss helps him better con- nect with patients. "I think that it's really an invaluable thing for his deaf patients because he understands what they're going through a lot more than other peo- ple do," Kaferle said. However, Kaferle said Zazove's patient care time has become limited due to the amount of administrative work he has taken on. Zazove is one of 25 professionals in the coun- try who conduct research on how hearing loss impacts health. Results from Zazove's studies may be used in the future to help the deaf have a better quality of life. Through his research, Zazove discovered peo- ple with even a slight hearing loss tend to have poorer health. He has yet to determine why, but he attributes the discovery to the fact that hear- ing doctors treat patients with hearing loss dif- ferently. In 1994, Zazove published an autobiography "When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes." His second book, out this month, is titled "Four Days in Michigan." While the book is classified as fic- tion, the story describes the differences between people in the "deaf" and "Deaf" communities. Zazove explained that people born with a profound hearing loss are considered "deaf" - lower-case "d" - and often keep quiet about their disability, while people in the "Deaf" community - upper-case "D" - communicate by sign lan- guage and embrace their hearing loss. According to Zazove, the "Deaf" community views him as "deaf" because he can hear slightly. "From a Deaf person's perspective, normal is deaf. Abnormal is hearing," Zazove said. This is also the group that makes less than $25,000 per year. For that reason, Zazove said few people in the Deaf community live in Ann Arbor because the cost of living in the city is too high. "They can't afford to live here. It's too expen- sive," Zazove said. "Most of them live in Flint, or Detroit, or Grand Rapids or small towns where it's cheap. I would say there's probably 30 or SO people in the Deaf community in Washtenaw County here for that reason." As far as students, Zazove said there may be a total of three to 15 students with a hearing loss who attend the University every year. The Office for Students with Disabilities helps them as much as possible by providing interpreters to take notes during classes and translate lec- tures. Though this may make a difference in deaf students' educational experiences, they still face challenges outside the classroom. Zazove explained how being deaf is a difficult disability to have because it's not visible. Using a hypothetical situation, he said if stu- dents are at party and a blind student walked in, most people would go over and help him or her. But if it was the same party and a deaf stu- dent walked in, no one would know the student was deaf and no one would offer assistance. Zazove says scenarios like this have happened often in his career. He mentioned one instance last month where, after leading a medical confer- ence, a man wearing a surgical mask due to ill- ness approached Zazove. "He came up to me said 'You did a good job moving this along' and left," Zazove said. "I had no idea what he said. Somebody who knew me said, 'I bet you didn't understand him,' I said no, and he told me what (the man had) said." From these experiences, Zazove understands why some people keep quiet about their deafness. "I think that's why people with hearing loss would finally give up and say I don't want any- body to know, it's too much trouble, it doesn't change anything anyway," he said. Yet, despite the myriad bumps and setbacks, Zazove has learned to live with his disability and embrace life regardless of his existence in a silent world. Reed said her husband's deafness is a characteristic that makes him so special. "He's a very beloved physician," Reed noted. "He has a loyal patient clientele who stick with him year in and year out. So while I do think it was difficult for him to become a physician, he's a great example that deaf individuals can do all kinds of professional jobs very well." WHAT'S THE ONE THING YOU WISH YOU'D DONE BEFORE YOU GRADUATE? Tell us for The Statement's first-ever Bucket List Issue. SEND AN E-MAIL TO CALERO@MICHIGANDAILY.COM SICK OF THE DORMS? CAN'T FIND A PLACE TO LIVE? 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