Aissam Dam, an 11-year-old boy who grew up deaf, was able to hear for the first time thanks to the skilled doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, writes Gina Kolata for The New York Times.

Aissam grew up in a poor community in Morocco, where he communicated with people using a sign language he invented and without schooling. After moving to Spain last year, his family took him to a specialist who told them he might be eligible for a clinical trial using gene therapy.

He was treated at CHOP and became the first person in the United States to receive gene therapy for congenital deafness. The aim was to provide him with hearing, but the researchers at the hospital did not know if the treatment would work or, if successful, to what degree Aissam would then be able to hear.

Luckily, the treatment worked and the boy was introduced to a whole new world of sounds.

“There’s no sound I don’t like,” he said, with the help of interpreters.

Aissam’s deafness is a rare form caused by a single gene mutation, otoferlin.

With his breakthrough, the goal is to replace the mutated otoferlin gene in future patients’ ears with a functional gene.

Read more about Aissam Dam and his groundbreaking treatment at The New York Times.

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