Discovering Sound | David's Journey with Dr. Karim Katrib

David Madison wakes to the sounds of his animals each morning on the small farm he shares with his wife in southern West Virginia.

To some, that might sound annoying. To David, that sound is everything ‒ a symphony and a miracle revealed in each rooster’s crow.

David was born unable to hear. He suffered from congenital otosclerosis, a rare condition that impairs the middle ear’s ability to transmit sound vibrations to the inner ear. For the first five decades of his life, David’s world was silent.

Despite seeking treatment over the years from surgeons in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, his condition remained unchanged, and his everyday life experiences were absent of sound.

Fast forward to 2023, when David met Dr. Karim Katrib, an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist at Logan Regional Medical Center. A determined Dr. Katrib made it his mission to restore David’s hearing. After much research, he arrived at a solution: an ossicular chain reconstruction stapedectomy, a complex surgical procedure aimed at repairing the delicate bones in the middle ear.

The surgeries were a success, restoring a significant amount of David’s hearing. The days that followed were nothing short of transformative ‒ for the first time in his life, David could hear the voices and sounds of the world around him.

"Dr. Katrib and the team at Logan Regional Medical Center have given me a precious gift ‒ one that I will cherish for the rest of my days," said David.

David’s journey from silence to sound reflects the remarkable strides being made in the field of otolaryngology and the life-changing impact of the skilled, compassionate care provided by clinicians like Dr. Katrib at Logan Regional Medical Center.

Sometimes, patients need the ordinary ‒ other times, the extraordinary. That’s why we’re here.

To learn more about Logan Regional’s surgical services, visit our website or call us at 304.831.1101.