For Robert Valderzak of Washington D.C.,Tuesday's earthquake was a miracle .      Ever since he fell and got his skull broken on Father's Day,75-year-old Valderzak had suffered severe hearing loss. But after the 5.8 quake, he could hear everything.     Valderzak was chatting with his daughter and three sons when the quake hit D.C.'s Veterans Affairs Hospital,where he is batting cancer. "It shook m terrible--right out of the bed," said Valderzak."But after that it stopped.And my son talked to me, and I could hear his voice."      Tests confirmed Valdezak's significant hearing improvement.But his doctors think they have a medical explanation for the "miracle".      "He.had conductive hearing loss,caused by a liquid in his middle ear, as well as loss due to nerve damage,"said Dr.Ross Fletcher,chief of staff at the VA Hospital. "A combustion of a drag he was taking and the earthquake event itself likely led to him losing the liquid and listening back his hearing."       Dr.Jennifer Smullen of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said the shaking itself might not have been enough to clear the fluid from Valderzak's inner ear.      "But if somebody was suddenly surprised, and shouted out,sometimes  that's enough to clear some fluid out from the ear drum."she Bald.      Valderzak had adjusted to his hearing loss with the help of a special microphone and some training in  _ .But the situation was far from satisfactory.     "The devices helped,but by the time I got them all connected up,everyone had left and I was talking to myself,"he said,adding that lip reading meant he could only talk to one person at a time. But now he can talk to all four of his kids again. What caused Valderzak to gain back his hearing according to Dr.Smullen?
A drug he was taking. The powerful earthquake. A drug and the earthquake. The shaking and his own shouting.