Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso, the man behind such shopping and entertainment centers as The Grove, and his wife have decided to donate $25 million to USC’s Keck School of Medicine for use by the department that treats ear, nose, throat, head and neck problems and by a related clinic that aids children with hearing loss.

The gift is being announced Thursday.

USC doctors last year inserted a new hearing device into the ear canal of the Carusos’ daughter, Gianna, who is now 15, and the teen, who had struggled with mild to moderate hearing loss since birth, suddenly started crying because of the clarity of the sound around her, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Gianna had relied on external hearing aids most of her life and had learned to read lips. With the new internal device, known as a Lyric hearing aid, she heard subtle sounds such as water gushing in a fountain or the chirp of a distant bird, her father said, according to The Times.

That experience influenced Rick and Tina Caruso to donate $25 million to the Keck School of Medicine, according to the newspaper.

“We want to be able to give more kids an opportunity for a very full and rich life and to minimize the struggles that come with hearing loss,” Rick Caruso, a USC alumnus, said in remarks reported by The Times.

—City News Service

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