Photos:: Chance for Auguste to hear

Auguste Majkowski, 3, center, squeezes between other children to get a view of meerkats during an outing to the Los Angeles Zoo before surgery.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Christophe Majkowski and wife Sophie Gareau try to get their son Auguste to eat dinner at their rented home in Highland Park.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The family moved from Montreal to a rented home in Highland Park to prepare for the boy’s surgery.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste, 3, was born without an auditory nerve, the wire that ferries sound from the ear to the brain. He doesn’t know the sound of his own name.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Christophe Majkowski helps his son Auguste, 3, who is cranky after not napping, dress after a bath.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The family hopes a brainstem implant will enable Auguste, 3, to hear.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste reads sign language as he waits for his baseline auditory testing to start. At left is audiologist Jamie Glater.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste gets a timeout from his mother at USC Center for Childhood Communication while waiting for auditory tests.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste had received a cochlea implant, but the surgery didn’t work because he had no auditory nerve to deliver sound to the brainstem.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Christophe Majkowski kisses Auguste in the pre-op area at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Electrodes help doctors monitor Auguste’s brain and nerve functions during surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Neurosurgeon Mark Krieger looks through a microscope during auditory brainstem implant surgery for Auguste Majkowski, 3, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste’s head is shaved and marked with sterile ink before surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Surgeons and medical staff during Auguste Majkowski’s auditory brainstem operation at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sophie Gareau and husband Christophe Majkowski wait while their son Auguste is in surgery.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sophie Gareau and husband Christophe Majkowski embrace after learning that their son’s surgery went well.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sophie Gareau and husband Christophe Majkowski thank surgeons Marc Schwartz, from left, Eric Wilkinson and Mark Krieger during a post-op consultation.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste is comforted by his mother, Sophie, left and grandmother Annie Raymond Gareau. He had cochlear implants, but they didn’t help.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sophie Gareau with son Auguste as he wakes up from surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sophie Gareau looks in on her son Auguste as the 3-year-old recovers after surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Daria Majkowski, 4, visits her brother Auguste, 3, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste listens for a series of tones as he participates in the testing of his new ABI device with his mother, Sophie Gareau, and audiologists at USC Center for Childhood Communication.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Auguste participates in the testing of his new ABI device with audiologists at USC Center for Childhood Communication.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The ABI delivers more rudimentary sound than does natural hearing. Auguste will always be deaf, and his mother says the family will always use sign language with him.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sophie Gareau cheers as Auguste reacts when he hears a series of tones during testing of his new ABI device.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)