Woman loses her hearing, but not sight of her goals

From: Orlando Sentinel, FL - 29 Dec 2002

By Robert Perez | Sentinel Staff Writer

When the choir director at First Presbyterian Church of DeBary suggested to Leslie Brown that she start performing hymns in sign language, she smiled and didn't ask for an explanation.

Brown's voice, which once wowed audiences at high school talent shows and consoled the grieving at funerals, is a little off-key these days.

That happens when you're deaf.

It has been a little more than a year since a medical mistake plunged Brown into silence.

The hearing loss did more than quiet Brown's singing. It kept her from fulfilling her dream of working as a paramedic.

But that hasn't stopped the 21-year-old woman with an infectious giggle and impossibly long eyelashes from pushing ahead with life. Neither has the breast cancer that she discovered a few weeks after she lost her hearing or the traffic accident that followed.

"If someone would have told me, 'Well Leslie, this year you're going to lose all your hearing; you're going to have to go through chemo; you're going to get into a car accident,' I might have had to stop for a second and been, like, excuse me? Me? All me?"

Brown did more than survive. She finished her paramedic training at Seminole Community College, graduated on time, found time to get engaged and became an inspiration to just about everyone she met.

Inspirational story

Kathy Campbell, Brown's sign-language instructor and interpreter, says she has never met anyone like Brown in her 21 years in the field.

"There's something about the way she views everything that's like no one else I've ever dealt with," Campbell said. "I almost view her like she's an angel on Earth. I've seen her inspire courage in so many people."

Brown refuses to dwell on her condition. She doesn't have time for pity.

"I don't introduce myself and say, 'Hi, I'm Leslie. I have cancer, and I can't hear.' "

That tough attitude kept Brown going to class despite her hearing loss or the fatigue and nausea brought on by chemotherapy.

Even after suffering a concussion, a broken collarbone, seven broken ribs and numerous cuts and bruises in a June auto accident, Brown somehow made it to class the next day.

But she did much more than just make it through class. Brown pushed herself to become a state-certified paramedic, all the while knowing her hearing loss would prevent her from working in the field.

The day she accepted her diploma -- Friday, Dec. 13 -- the graduation crowd gave Brown a standing ovation and roared when she showed the sign for "I love you" she had painted on her shaved head.

"She is really one of those people that you need in this field," said Robert McGraw, SCC's program coordinator for EMS. "She has such an unbelievable spirit."

Brown doesn't see anything brave or extraordinary in her accomplishments. She just did what had to be done. Her favorite Bible verse, Romans 5:3-6, reflects that attitude.

"For we glory in tribulation because we know tribulation produces perseverance, and of perseverance, character, and of character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint," Brown said.

Accident a bizarre mishap

On Oct. 1, 2001, Brown was well on her way to achieving her life's goal.

She was assisting a doctor at Central Florida Regional Medical Center that day as part of a required internship for her paramedic certification.

Brown was holding a bottle of lidocaine near her face as the doctor drew the drug with a syringe. But the bottle exploded, spraying the anesthetic onto Brown's face and arms and into her eyes and mouth.

Almost immediately, she went into anaphylactic shock and lingered near death for days.

She recovered, but her hearing loss is a permanent reminder of that horrible day.

However, Brown will tell you the biggest event in her young life occurred two weeks before, when she went to New York City after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

A friend and mentor was one of the 343 firefighters who died in New York City that day. Brown, then a volunteer firefighter with the DeBary Fire Department, flew to New York to sing at his funeral and then spent three days at ground zero, helping search for bodies.

The compassion she saw among the volunteers and residents of the city changed her view of the world.

"It just changed my whole life being there," she said. "Now that's all I see in people."

Today, her approach to everything that happens is to find the positive side.

"I wasn't going to find work as a paramedic, so I thought about being a nurse," she said. "Then I met someone who told me that I should teach deaf children."

Brown plans to remain another year at SCC and get an associate's degree in exceptional education.

Then, she wants to attend Flagler College in St. Augustine, which offers a bachelor's degree in deaf education.

"I thought I was going to be a firefighter-paramedic for the rest of my life," she said. "Now, I found something different that I should be doing. I want to teach. Now I can change the lives of deaf children."

No limits

Brown doesn't see limits for herself and has definite ideas about people who want to limit what disabled children attempt to do.

The spark in her hazel eyes grows dark when she recalls one person who tried to discourage her from helping out at Special Olympics.

"Those are the people that really make me mad, the people who say, 'Oh, don't let them do that. They'll just embarrass themselves,' " she said, scrunching her face in distaste.

"Oh, you mean they'll embarrass you? What? They won't win? They're winning because they think they're winning. They're winning because they did something that's not in the norm for what people put out there for them."

Brown wants deaf children to achieve more than what is expected. Her perspective about the past year in her life strengthens that desire.

"There are always things much worse out there than what's happened to me," she said.

Being strong, pushing her limits and inspiring others to achieve is the reward.

'You can do anything'

Not long after her cancer surgery, on a day she was scheduled to have another round of chemotherapy, Brown not only ran in a 5-kilometer charity race for cancer research, but she also shamed a few friends into joining her.

"I finished the race last," she recalled.

"But when you finally finish and you turn around, and you look and you see other people crying and they're crying for you, those are people who aren't feeling bad for you. They're happy because you've achieved something." Brown can't hear her message herself, but it's loud and clear for anyone who will listen.

"You can do anything you want to do."

Robert Perez can be reached at rperez@orlandosentinel.com or 407-322-1298.

© 2002 OrlandoSentinel.com