Part.1)

I am the reason she’s like this, it’s my fault. It is my fault the voices of her loved ones will never be heard through her ears. I made her this way and there is nothing I could have done. My name is Morgan, a young protein  found on the (GJB2) gene. I am connexion 26, the main reason my host has non-syndromic hearing loss. My host Mckenzie, is a sweet 11 year old girl who was born with non-syndromic hearing loss. Mckenzie inherited this disease from her father.When my genetics were still being created and Mckenzie was still an infant inside the womb, her ears were damaged. Mckenzie was born with non-syndromic hearing loss caused by a viral infection in the inner ear.

Non syndromic hearing loss has provided many difficulties to live with, there are a lot more side effects then Mckenzie’s parents had anticipated. Mckenzie does not communicate verbally, instead she speaks with sign language. Well I would’t say she speaks it fluently but she’s learning. Mckenzie also goes to speech therapy three times a week and has been learning how to read lips. Mckenzie strongly relies on the four senses she has because she is missing one. She does homeschooling because she finds it extremely difficult to follow along in class by only reading lips. Mckenzie started homeschooling in the first grade deciding it would be a better option after being in school for one year (kindergarten). Not only has this syndrome effected Mckenzie’s life but it also effects her whole family’s. They have all been taking sign language lessons and they always have to be mindful of how fast the are speaking or how much they have to pronunciate.

It all went wrong when the DNA copied itself while the DNA was dividing. The copied pattern got mixed up and so the two identical DNA strips were no longer identical, which is a mutation. About one child out of every 500 is born or has developed hearing loss as a child.

Mckenzie appearance does not look any different from others. Despite her hearing loss the only thing that makes her stand out are her hearing aids. You might be wondering why someone would need hearing aids if they can’t hear anything at all. The hearing aids do not allow her to hear general sounds but they give her a better sense of her surroundings. The type of syndrome Mckenzie has is familial. Familial is a syndrome where you develop non syndromic hearing loss from a family member, in this case her father. Mckenzie also has sensorineural hearing which is when the the hearing loss is caused by having an infection in the inner ear as a baby.