My name is Maxime Vanlande, but everyone calls me Max. I have been deaf since birth due to very severe meningitis. My father noticed that something was wrong when, one day, as I was falling asleep in my crib, he slammed the door very loudly as he left my bedroom. Thinking that I was going to cry, he was surprised to see me continue sleeping. He clapped his hands to see if I had any reaction, but there was none. 

A few weeks later, I was crying constantly, and my father, exhausted, consulted several doctors. They all said it was normal for a baby, but he finally decided to take me to the hospital. A doctor then discovered that I had highly contagious meningitis. I was less than a year old, and according to the doctors, I was the youngest in France to have this disease. They offered my parents an operation with a cochlear implant in Lyon, which they accepted despite their concerns.