Sweating It Out

By Laura Karpf

Brian Koehler was on top of the world. Tall and athletic, he had a rewarding career as an administrator in the College of Engineering and a great family that shared his passion for fun and recreation. But in an instant, the world he knew changed forever. It was the first week of classes in the fall of 2007. While teaching, he realized he couldn't hear out of one ear. He didn’t think anything of it; just shook it off as some weird quirk.

But, that evening, as he walked to his car, he found that he could not hear anything at all. Not the cars moving around him, not the normal buzz of the NC State campus. He solicited the help of a nearby Ph.D. student and some colleagues and was rushed to the emergency room.

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