On the Bright Side: Area boy overcomes disability, aims for Eagle Scout status

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June 16, 2012

On the Bright Side: Area boy overcomes disability, aims for Eagle Scout status

By JOE MAHONEY Staff Writer The Daily Star Sat Jun 16, 2012, 03:30 AM EDT

COOPERSTOWN -- Noah Trong has never been one to shirk away from tall challenges.

Born deaf, the 15-year-old from the Otsego County town of Exeter has developed an ambitious Eagle Scout project aimed at raising public awareness regarding people with disabilities.

"People are not handicapped," he said. "They are handi-capable."

When his parents, Chris and Lynne Trong, took their first-born child home from Bassett Medical Center, they did not know their baby, Noah, was unable to hear.

Over the months that followed, they began to wonder why Noah appeared to panic when they placed him in his crib or when they put him in the car.

"It was as if we weren't there," Lynne Trong said.

What the parents could not have realized at that time was that their soothing and reassuring words to their baby were not being heard.

At about the time Noah was turning a year old, the Trongs asked that Noah's hearing be checked.

It was then that they learned he was born profoundly deaf. When he was 13 months old, he was enrolled in the Rome School for the Deaf.

There, Noah learned sign language. As a youngster, he also figured out, on his own, how to read lips by watching lip movements of people who were signing with their hands. His communication skills were improving. But while he was equipped with the a hearing aid, much of what people said to him still wasn't registering.

When Noah was about to enter first grade, his parents said they struggled with the decision over whether to keep him at a school for the deaf or enroll him in the Edmeston Central School District.

"He wanted to be mainstreamed," Lynne Trong said. "It was hard for us as parents because we knew he was safe at the Rome School for the Deaf. But he really wanted to do this. So we let a 7-year-old make his own decision. He made the right choice."

Three years ago, when he was 12, Noah became the first child patient of Dr. Elizabeth Redd, a member of the Otolaryngology Department at Bassett Medical Center, to receive a cochlear implant.

As a result of the surgery, his ability to hear improved dramatically.

"I opened a window and for the first time I could hear birds chirping," he recalled.

His father recalled that he and Noah went into the woods that year to go turkey hunting. "I remember Noah saying, 'Dad, is that what a gobble sounds like?'"

A member of Boy Scout Troop 47 of Springfield since he was in kindergarten, Noah has long had his sights set on receiving the coveted status of an Eagle Scout -- the highest attainable rank in the Boy Scouts of America.

This year he suggested developing a disability awareness presentation, and enlisted Redd and the Otolaryngology Department at Bassett to sponsor the program.

The forum will be held at 5:30 p.m. June 28 at Bassett's Clark Auditorium. Noah said he will offer a PowerPoint presentation. There will also be remarks from Redd and Dr. Joseph Dutkowsky, a pediatric orthopedist at Bassett and president of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. In addition, there will be presentations from Dr. Brenda Wait, a primary care physician at Bassett; her son, Albert Wait, a youth with cerebral palsy, Katie Crouse of Springfield, who is also living with cerebral palsy; and Chelsea Nattrass, who sustained a disabling spinal cord injury as a teenager.

This summer, Noah is set to work as a counselor in training at Henderson Scout Camp on Crumhorn Mountain. In the time since he received his cochlear implant three years ago, a new waterproof version of the device has become available. Redd said that she looks forward to equipping Noah with one this summer so he can leave it on when he is swimming or out in the rain.

Lynne and Chris Trong, who are also parents to a 12-year-old daughter, Micaela, said the progress Noah has made over the years has been tremendously facilitated by Bassett's staff and the Otsego County Department of Health's early intervention program.

Noah has also given himself a boost by staying determined to reach his goals.

"When he was 7 years old," recalled Chris Trong, "Noah told us that whether they are hearing or deaf, he wanted to educate people."

As for what he hopes to accomplish, Noah said he wants to give families such as his own assurances that there are available services that can assist them. "If this helps just one person -- whatever the situation they are in," he said, "it will be worth doing."

If you have good news you'd like to share, call Assistant Editor Emily Popek at 432-1000 or (800) 721-1000, ext. 217; fax her at 432-5707; email her at epopek@thedailystar.com; or write to her at P.O. Box 250, Oneonta, NY 13820.