The most moving experience for me was in 1978 when our first patient heard speech for the first time,

All the scientists around the world said it wasn't possible and I was getting so much criticism at the time. It was such a relief that I went into the laboratory next door and burst into tears.

It was really something that grabbed me that I wanted to do . . . medicine.

I surprised a local minister at the age of 10 when he asked me what I wanted to be and I told him that I wanted to be an eye and ear doctor,

Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...

I was uncertain about some of that, and with his experience with the board, that was a big issue I talked to him about,