Texans' Barwin tackles NFL after conquering deafness Several surgeries were required to regain hearing

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Connor Barwin had no idea what his mother was doing when she had him face the wall before she walked away.

The talkative, 18-month-old simply stood there waiting.

Just a few feet behind him, his mother started calling his name. Connor didn’t flinch. No matter how loud she spoke, Connor just stared at the wall. His parents, Margaret Bailey and Tom Barwin, were shocked. Their youngest of four sons was deaf.

Doctors told them Connor’s right ear was easily correctable with minor surgery and tubes. His left ear was a different story. He had a benign tumor wrapped like a vine around the inside of his ear. It would have to be removed piece by piece over the course of several surgeries, and they would need to put in prosthesis.

“It was pretty advanced,” his mother said of the tumor. “In fact, the doctor was a Mayo Clinic doctor who saw him at first, and said he must have been born with it, because it’s actually something that elderly people have because it takes a lifetime to grow. Connor’s had grown in a year. (The doctor) had never even seen that before.”

Twenty years and several surgeries later, Connor Barwin is a month away from beginning his first NFL training camp as a rookie defensive end for the Texans. He is far more concerned with learning the playbook and improving his technique than he is with his hearing.

Surgery eventually restored the hearing in his right ear and left him with just 30 to 40 percent hearing loss in his left ear. The scars remain. His left ear has a large canal, which was reconstructed with skin grafts from his arm.

The discovery happened by accident. Connor’s mother had taken him to an ear, nose and throat specialist who was seeing one of her other sons. Before they left, the doctor offered to look at her little one as well. The discovery shook the family.

Texans rookie Connor Barwin began life deaf, but after multiple operations, is able to hear. Texans rookie Connor Barwin began life deaf, but after multiple operations, is able to hear. Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Texans' Barwin tackles NFL after conquering deafness 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Teaching himself to talk

“He had taught himself to talk by reading lips, which was why no one knew until the doctor checked him at 18 months,” Bailey said. “The doctors say that occasionally can happen. He was loud, and he would talk right into your face, and that’s a sure sign of how he was teaching himself to talk.

“He has always been quite determined.”

Connor’s easygoing attitude helped ease his parents’ anxieties. The one-hour surgeries, which inevitably would drag on for three or four hours, were the most nerve-wrecking for his mom and dad. His surgeries were spread across more than a decade, but Connor carried on in between as if nothing was wrong.

By middle school, the doctors had removed the final pieces of the tumor and Connor was deemed tumor-free.

For a while as a teenager, he was self-conscious of how his left ear looked. He grew his hair a little longer to cover it. But that phase passed, and Connor rarely thought of his hearing problem.

Whatever it takes

He never sat in the front of classes like he was supposed to. He sat where he wanted and, if needed, he read lips, at which he became adept as a child. He also continued excelling at sports.

“Once he got the all clear, he went on to be a normal kid,” Tom Barwin said. “I do think his coordination might have been a little enhanced. His vision has been very sharp. His hand-eye coordination has been sharp. I don’t know if any of that made a tiny incremental difference.

“But he’s always been ferociously competitive. He never complained about a thing. He got over that just like everything he has confronted.”

Finding his way

Connor tends to watch people’s lips more than their eyes during conversations, out of habit. Sometimes in college he read the defensive coordinator’s lips when plays were called in rather than looking at the hand signals.

But Connor never felt hindered by his hearing loss. At least not until his tight ends coach at Cincinnati sat him down to watch a cut-up he had created. It showed Connor a step or two behind when he lined up on the right side of the quarterback. He was never late when he lined up on the left side.

“When I would line up on the right side at tight end with my left ear toward the quarterback, I would sometimes have troubles hearing the calls,” he said. “The move to defense (as a senior) definitely eliminated any hearing problems impacting my football game, because on defense you’re just watching movement and ball movement. There’s not really any problem with it anymore.”

The Texans had no concerns when they used their second-round pick on him. They look for Connor to become a pass rusher on the right side, which would free Mario Williams up to rush from the left side.

Welcome to Texans

His parents look forward to seeing what’s in store. They rarely missed any basketball or football games during Connor’s career at Cincinnati. Now, they are taking a crash course on the Texans.

“You never know ahead of time when something happens how it will be a good thing in the end,” Bailey said. “Maybe his little hearing issue when he was born kind of instilled more determination in him. Maybe that’s where that came from.

“Now we just trust that whatever has happened and whatever will happen is probably the right thing, even if you don’t see it right away.”

megan.manfull@chron.com