Francesca Burcea was born with normal hearing nearly four years ago in her native Romania, but a rare case of meningitis took away her ability to hear when she was 18 months old.

Francesca's parents reached out to family members in St. Louis for help. Francesca's aunt contacted audiologist Stanton Jones at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. Thanks to Mission Services at the hospital and a local manufacturer, pediatric otolaryngologist Anthony Mikulec, M.D., did a cochlear implant operation.

After a successful surgery, Francesca's facial expressions showed she is responding to sound. Francesca and her mother returned home to Romania after she adjusted to the new device and worked on developing her speech again.

Watch Francesca's video:

The Miracle of Sound 
    (video courtesy of Fox 2 News St. Louis)