Deaf lady gets to hear for the very first time in 39 years, very moving Story

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Location
London England
Click. Click. Click. I’m standing in the hallway flicking the light switch on and off. The room is alternately plunged in and out of darkness as the bulb hanging from the ceiling goes black, then lights up, and then goes black again.
On and on I go, like a naughty toddler, amused and fascinated in equal measure. Click. Click. Click. Who knew that light switches had a sound?
Sound. I still can’t get used to the idea. It’s just 24 hours since the doctors switched on my cochlear implants for the first time, ending a lifetime’s deafness, and I’m already finding that my home, which I thought I knew so well, is full of noisy surprises.
It’s not just the light switch in the hall that has startled me. Tap, tap, tap. Footsteps follow me everywhere I go on my laminate floors.
They are, of course, my own.
There’s the constant tick tock of clocks, the clicking of the central heating, the voices of children playing outside and cars rumbling past, a dripping tap.
It takes me ages to work out what the constant buzzing sound in my kitchen is, until I trace it to the fridge. I’d always thought of it as an inanimate object. Who knew it had a heart beating away inside?

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...ing-story-make-appreciate-sounds-granted.html
 

Music is such a big part of our lives, constantly in our head and all around us. Imagine hearing it for the first time!

I wonder how she knew that the woman's voice was "high pitched." How did she even have that concept? She seemed to have a very good handle on communication. Maybe she had a little bit of partial hearing before. It seems to me that the world of sounds would be a big, buzzing confusion at first.

Mind you, I'm not doubting any of this; I'm sure it's real. These are just thoughts that popped into my head.
 

Sunny said:
Music is such a big part of our lives, constantly in our head and all around us. Imagine hearing it for the first time!

I wonder how she knew that the woman's voice was "high pitched." How did she even have that concept? She seemed to have a very good handle on communication. Maybe she had a little bit of partial hearing before. It seems to me that the world of sounds would be a big, buzzing confusion at first.

Mind you, I'm not doubting any of this; I'm sure it's real. These are just thoughts that popped into my head.
Click to expand...

Imagine hearing violins for the first time, or a piano, or singing?! I saw a video where a little boy heard his mother's voice for the first time.

I too wondered about how she knew high pitch.
 
Oh she's very real, a few weeks ago we read her story on the day she had her cochlear transpla nts implanted and her mother posted the video on youtube of her first reaction to hearing sound.

Apparently she has never had hearing, she says in the article that she would sit as a child with her ear pressed next to a speaker thinking that the vibration she could feel was actually sound!!

I suspect that she's decribing the high pitched sound in retrospect now she's had a few weeks of understanding different tones of sound.


I am so sorry she's losing her sight almost completely as well but it's like a miracle been given to her that she will not have to be cut off completely from the world when he sight goes completely and will be able to do so much more than she felt she ever would.

I come from a family of profoundly deaf ..almost all on my fathers' side are deaf and mute..my father was born with hearing in just one ear which made him the spokesman for his family all his life as well as being able to having to learn sign language to converse with his own family , and was the first person in Britain to have a successful plastic eardrum inserted way back in 1946.. my sister also was born with just one eardrum and is totally deaf in her right ear.

I learned BSL before I could talk even though I have perfect hearing. I wish this miracle had been available for my aunties and uncles when they were younger...only 2 of them still alive and too old now to have it or even want it to be done.
 
I am following this story too Holly, I really feel
for this young woman.

When she first had her implants switched on,
her reactions were filmed and were all over the
News towards the end of last year.

She had hearing aids before, but they were not
very successful, yet it was reported that when
she did speak, it was with a local accent even
though she was born deaf, that puzzled me.

Mike.
 
It is awful that she's going blind, but such a miracle that at least she'll be able to hear. I always wondered how Helen Keller managed to communicate without either one.
 
Well she was amazing of course but even to this day there are many, many people who are having to cope day to day both blind and deaf.

I've often in the past asked individual members of my deaf family if they would have preferred to have been born deaf or blind, and always with a resounding answer they have said...what?..to not see what we're doing, to not know what our loved ones look like, to not be able to read, or see the seasons and the beauty in everything?...no never. always it's better to have been born deaf rather than not have eyesight.

I have 2 friends who are blind..I asked them the same question....they were horrified at the idea of being deaf. To not hear the sound of music, the bird song, the childrens' voices, face to face communication...NO< never if it had to be one then, they would hate to have been born deaf!!


It's just about what you've never known I suppose.
 
Mike said:
She had hearing aids before, but they were not
very successful, yet it was reported that when
she did speak, it was with a local accent even
though she was born deaf, that puzzled me.
Mike.
Click to expand...

I'm ambiguous about this story.
For one thing, no cochlear implant will give you the sort of hearing one would have naturally. Don't be misled into thinking that happens.

For another, the local accent is interesting. Somewhere along the line she had hearing. I say that from experience. My daughter is profoundly deaf, but her speech is exactly what one would expect from a hearing person...and that confuses people she meets. Her hearing gradually left her so that by the time she was 2 years old, she was as she is now: profoundly deaf. She is a CDI [ certified deaf interpreter ] working in the Courts and medical situations, having reached the "Masters" level. She's also an interpreter for deaf/blind folks.

She would not go for an implant. She believes the deaf have a culture, a community, that she would never want to give up. Most of the folks she knows feel the same. Perhaps they are better adjusted in some way?

I am glad this woman has some hearing now because Ushers Syndrome is devastating. She will be able to hear [ though not natural hearing levels ] when her sight is gone.

Rocky
 
Rocky, both of the remaining 2 relatives of mine who were born deaf can and do speak..they've never heard a single word word in their lives but they make the sound of the word in the way you and many who know deaf people do...it's not the clearest speech and there's no intonation to it nor accent but they can make themselves understood to those hearing people who are used to it
 
hollydolly said:
Rocky, both of the remaining 2 relatives of mine who were born deaf can and do speak..they've never heard a single word word in their lives but they make the sound of the word in the way you and many who know deaf people do...it's not the clearest speech and there's no intonation to it nor accent but they can make themselves understood to those hearing people who are used to it
Click to expand...

Yes, that's the same as my older daughter, also profoundly deaf, but she had to learn speech/lip-reading from the age of 2 years. Speech is pretty good; lip-reading not-so-much [ something hugely difficult to learn! ].
 
If I had to choose one sense to lose - hearing or eyesight - I'd choose hearing. Not to be able to see is the worse thing I can imagine.
 
You're welcome Jim.. :)

For me Annie, I agree.....I couldn't cope with not being able to see, please God none of us ever find ourselves in that position.
 
Rocky said:
Yes, that's the same as my older daughter, also profoundly deaf, but she had to learn speech/lip-reading from the age of 2 years. Speech is pretty good; lip-reading not-so-much [ something hugely difficult to learn! ].
Click to expand...

My family were and are excellent Lip readers and of course as children we always had to remember to face them when we were talking. Sometimes we'd say something out of the sides of our mouths half turned away from them that we didn't want them to read...and they STILL got the Gist ..and we never knew how they did it..;)
 
I think that people without sight are more handicapped than people without hearing. At least, without hearing you don't keep walking into things. But the thought of living without music - ugh!

I thought it was interesting when she said that the hearing world is full of anger (horns honking, people yelling at each other, etc.) that she had been unaware of. Maybe that's why the deaf culture has an appeal for people; there may be less nastiness in it for some reason.
 
Sunny said:
I think that people without sight are more handicapped than people without hearing. At least, without hearing you don't keep walking into things. But the thought of living without music - ugh!

I thought it was interesting when she said that the hearing world is full of anger (horns honking, people yelling at each other, etc.) that she had been unaware of. Maybe that's why the deaf culture has an appeal for people; there may be less nastiness in it for some reason.
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I would miss music the most! And hearing the voices of those I love. Then nature sounds - surf, birdsong.
 
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It's amazing what modern medicine can do.

We take our hearing and sight for granted and can't imagine living without them. But as we get older they do get weaker. I have to wear reading glasses now and my son is always complaining that I must have a hearing problem because I'm often asking him to repeat what he says. So I'm going to get my hearing checked very soon.
 
Get up to date people.

Its not called LIP READING anymore its now called SPEECH READING.

Its not called hard of hearing anymore,its now called HEARING IMPAIRED.

If you use a cane to walk are you hard of walking ?
If you wear glasses are you hard of seeing?
 
You say Tomatoe...I say tomato... what does it matter it's not insulting is it....Hard of hearing?...yes..it's hard to hear...to me Impaired means damaged..not whole, ..just because I wear specs I would never describe myself as a less than whole person, a damaged person...I;m not impaired I'm not damaged ... I just find it more difficult ( Harder) to see than without them..

Call it whatever you like Hard of hearing...speech impaired ...lip reading... as long as we all understand each other and believe me my family have been lip reading for over over 70 years they are not going to call it anything else just to keep the PC'ers happy..
 
hollydolly said:
You say Tomatoe...I say tomato... what does it matter it's not insulting is it....Hard of hearing?...yes..it's hard to hear...to me Impaired means damaged..not whole, ..just because I wear specs I would never describe myself as a less than whole person, a damaged person...I;m not impaired I'm not damaged ... I just find it more difficult ( Harder) to see than without them..

Call it whatever you like Hard of hearing...speech impaired ...lip reading... as long as we all understand each other and believe me my family have been lip reading for over over 70 years they are not going to call it anything else just to keep the PC'ers happy..
Click to expand...

I agree with everything that you say here Holly.

Thank god that I can hear and see, so far!

Mike.
 

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