Research Forum spotlights patient experiences at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine By Laurie Wang on May 17, 2017 For 35 years, Michael Brown was known as “the guy with one ear.” Born with hemifacial macrosomia, Brown thought he would just get used to having no right ear and no hearing on one side for the rest of his life. “It defined who I was, how I met people, where I stood in the room—even where I would sit in the movie theatre,” said Brown. “I was defined by what I wasn’t, not who I was.”