Support, Talent, and Grand Dreams
Doctor Makes Discoveries that Help Others

A young deaf man became a doctor and made discoveries that would change the world—at least for people with high blood pressure.

Myron Weinberger

When Myron was a little boy, he was playing outside with his friends and his mother appeared. Myron knew immediately that she was angry. She grabbed him by the arm and marched him back home. Once inside, she closed the door, took out his father's belt, and whipped him.

"You must come when I call you!" she exclaimed.

Myron cried.

"But, mother, I didn't hear you!" he said finally.

Myron's mother stared at her son.

She had just taken his sister to the doctor because she was afraid that the little girl was deaf. At two years old, Myron's sister didn't talk. The doctor said to bring her back later. It was 1941 and there were no hearing tests for two year olds.

Now Mrs. Weinberger wondered if her son had a hearing loss too.

His family noticed other things.

Myron did not talk like other boys.

"You talk like your mouth is full of mashed potatoes," his grandmother said.

His father noticed that Myron wouldn't respond to people if his back were turned. Even when he was a baby, Myron had to see people to respond to them.

In School

Myron loved books. Before he started school, his mother and father read books to him. He asked questions about the stories, and he matched the words and the pictures. By the time he started kindergarten, he had learned to read.

He had also taught himself to lipread. Still, he couldn't follow the other students when they read books together in class because he couldn't see their lips. So Myron read books on his own—and he was always ahead of the other students.

In third grade, he got his first hearing aid.

He didn't mind the hearing aid so much. It was a little embarrassing, he says, but the most of the kids knew him already, and in some ways, the aid felt unimportant. It was "like an ornament," he remembers.

Sometimes he even played tricks with his hearing aid.

When the substitute teacher came to class he rubbed it and made it squeal. Everyone laughed while the teacher tried to find the source of the strange sound.

The hearing aid helped a lot—except when there were firecrackers.

"To this day, I hate firecrackers," he says.

Applying To School

Myron applied to medical school after three years in college.

He was turned down.

He felt that the committee wanted to see how committed he was—how badly he wanted medicine as a career—because as a deaf person he would be forced to make adjustments in order to succeed.

The following year he applied to medical school again. This time, he was accepted.

Myron became a doctor.

Successful Doctor

What is High Blood Pressure? Perhaps you've had your blood pressure taken at the doctor's office. A nurse put a cuff around your arm, and pumped it full of air so that it felt uncomfortable and tight. Then the nurse released the air from the cuff slowly. The whole time, the nurse watched a small device with numbers on it. 120/60—a good blood pressure for a young adult. Your blood pressure was recorded in two numbers. The first number showed the pressure in the arteries when the heart contracted. This is called the systolic pressure. For a young adult an average healthy systolic pressure is 120. The second number showed the blood's pressure in the arteries when heart relaxed. The second number is called the diastolic pressure. For a young adult, an average healthy diastolic pressure is 60. When a person has high blood pressure, the arteries resist passage of the blood, and the heart must beats harder to keep the blood moving through the body. Therefore the pressure on the arteries increases, making the person vulnerable to strokes, heart attacks, and other serious problems.

Now Dr. Myron Weinberger is a worldwide expert on hypertension. Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure. "High blood pressure" is when blood exerts too much pressure on the arteries and forces the heart to work hard all the time. It is the number one reason that people see a doctor. It is also the leading cause of death from heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure.

Dr. Weinberger has made important discoveries. He discovered that birth control pills cause some women to have high blood pressure. He discovered some special ways that the kidneys and the adrenal glands affect blood pressure. He has written over 400 articles for medical journals.

At 61 years old, he is widely-recognized by doctors and patients around the world. He is Vice President of the American Society for Hypertension. He helped establish one of the blood pressure centers under the National Institutes of Health. He has received many awards. Most recently, he earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Heart Association.

He uses two his hearing aids and a strong body aid. On the job, he uses an electronic stethoscope and recognizes out of sync heartbeats by touch. He can still use an amplified telephone—if an assistant listens on the other end and mouths the caller's words.

"I've had incredible support from my family and all my friends," he says.

And he's used it to achieve success in his own, life and make life better for thousands of other people.