Stoughton girl enjoying life with new prosthetic ear

"She's always had such a fine ear for music," Sarah Peterson says.

"It was just amazing given her circumstances but a fine ear for music."

Kierney Hendron can only hear out of one of her ears.

"I like a lot of types of music... don't like country too much," she says.

The 13-year-old was born with a severe form of what's called microtia.

Pictures of her as a baby show only a small patch of skin for a right ear.

"We had never heard of it until Kierney was born," her mother says, "But the scariest part was not so much the physical appearance, but that we thought she might be deaf."

The regular piano player still cannot hear from the right side.

But to see her, it's hard to notice any birth defect.

Dr. Ben Marcus, a reconstructive surgeon with UW Health, is Kierney's doc.

"I probably see maybe one child a month that has that."

Using an implant, Dr. Marcus created an ear for Kierney.

He says due to the delicate skin and intricate shape of an ear, this is the hardest procedure he performs.

"What made this surgery so difficult is rather than new skin to work with all of this scar tissue is actually laid on top of the ear...in some ways we had to be extra careful... didn't have tissue that was gonna be as forgiving as un-operated tissue," he says.

For about six years, Kierney wore a prosthetic ear.

It clicked into magnets, but she says it grew uncomfortable, and it fell off.

"One time I was bowling with my prosthetic and it actually came off .. and it was just so funny 'cause I just went to my mom and was like 'mom, my ear fell off.' She's like well get it. And so I'm glad that probably won't happen ever again."

Kierney's right ear is about 20 percent larger, giving her the chance to grow into it. But she says she's happy.

"I feel really great about it. It's just really cool."

"I don't carry too many pictures around with me on my phone. That one I carry on my phone because I just like looking at it," Dr. Marcus says.