Amazing: 29-Year-Old Deaf Girl Hearing Herself For The First Time!

[ktlight]

This video really touches deeply.

"Uploaded by NEWVIDEOSNET on Sep 30, 2011
"Hello, I was born deaf and 8 weeks ago I received a hearing implant. This is the video of them turning it on and me hearing myself for the first time :

For those of you who have asked, the implant I received was Esteem offered by Envoy Medical." - sloanchurman"

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlSOtH9BrRk

[westhill]

I found it weird is that she does not speak like a person who has been deaf her whole life. I did some looking and it seems she was not completely deaf and had used
hearing aids to enhance her speech capabilities (plus a lot of hard work). She also lipreads. Just thought some others might question the video.
westhill

[Caren]

Hi ktlight,
I am very happy for the young lady and her husband. It's wonderful to watch her reaction when the hearing
implant is turned on. I grew up with a younger brother whom has only a very small amount of hearing in one ear - it wasn't easy for him. Thanks for this lovely video.

[aranuk]

KT is there a story link?

Stan

[Ellisa]

What a fantastic video. Deafness is such a difficult disability to have as it is quite invisible to most of us in the general population. Westhill's insightful comment is very useful. It is a fact that sometimes it is better for people with hearing impairment to not become to adept at speech as others will criticise their responses, not realising that they are deaf. This woman must have worked very very hard though, and her tears reflect the effort she has made. This change will stand her in good stead as she learns how much the implant will help her in he future.

These devices are now being fitted to very young children which should enable them to improve their cognitive development and allow them to live an easier life.

[Flash]

Posted by Ellisa (here)
What a fantastic video. Deafness is such a difficult disability to have as it is quite invisible to most of us in the general population. Westhill's insightful comment is very useful. It is a fact that sometimes it is better for people with hearing impairment to not become to adept at speech as others will criticise their responses, not realising that they are deaf. This woman must have worked very very hard though, and her tears reflect the effort she has made. This change will stand her in good stead as she learns how much the implant will help her in he future.

These devices are now being fitted to very young children which should enable them to improve their cognitive development and allow them to live an easier life.

I totally love this sweetie and the video. This must have been very hard for her to learn to speak almost normally. She had not heard herself cry before, can you imagine!

And yes, the tears show the hard work she has put in, as well as others who may lash at people because of their disabilities, not knowing they are there, or worst, knowing quite well they are there.

Some kids do hear, but cannot use the language properly or make sense out of it. The tears they have for being lashed at and the discomfort they feel in large groups or around bullies is incredible. These people have to build up an outstanding courage otherwise they would live as victims (lots don't, they have more courage than the normal average folk).

Sierra and I know very well.

[Siberia9]

I cant lie I got a little watery and choked up watching that, and I'm not known for being a soft person, I can separate myself from any situation without emotion. Very powerful, I somehow felt her burden and it was released in an instant. Good one man.

[w1ndmill]

Posted by westhill (here)
I found it weird is that she does not speak like a person who has been deaf her whole life. I did some looking and it seems she was not completely deaf and had used
hearing aids to enhance her speech capabilities (plus a lot of hard work). She also lipreads. Just thought some others might question the video.
westhill

Thanks Westhill. I must admit that was my very first thought. My second was that although she has been deprived of the positives of not having one of our senses, she also hasn't experienced the negative side of it either. I would love to see another interview say six months down the line and hear what she has to say.

[ktlight]

Posted by aranuk (here)
KT is there a story link?

Stan

First, she heard her own voice. Then her voice went viral — accompanied by her tears of joy.

All in all, it was not a bad week for 29-year-old Sarah Churman of Burleson, Tex.

Even better, she heard her two young daughters, Oli and Elise, say “I love you,” on the phone — again, for the very first time.

Churman did not experience these wonders on her own.

In fact, by Tuesday afternoon, roughly 5.5 million people had viewed an amateur video of Churman’s entry into the audible world. Shot by her husband, Sloan, the video depicts a sobbing but obviously delighted young woman seated in a medical clinic, pressing her hands to her face in a combination of elation and disbelief.

Or, as Churman put it in a blog entry on Sunday, “Times like this remind me that this world can be a beautiful place.”

So it can — especially when you can hear as well as see, touch and taste.

Owing to a genetic deformity in her inner ear, Churman has been hard of hearing since birth. Conventional hearing aids, first fitted when she was 2 years old, provided her with a crude sensitivity to vibration and loud noises, while lip-reading did the rest.

And that, it seemed, was to be the young Texan’s perpetual lot.

What has changed Churman’s life — or at least the part of her life that is transmitted by sound — is a medical device developed by a company based in St. Paul, Minn., and approved by U.S. medical authorities about 18 months ago.

Implanted surgically, the device fits behind the ear and picks up vibrations from the eardrum, which it transmits to the cochlea and then to the brain. The battery has to be replaced every few years.

Marketed under the brand name Esteem, the mechanism can help people, like Churman, who suffer from sensorineural, or inner ear, problems. Such issues affect about half the 10 per cent of the world’s population who suffer from a serious hearing disability.

But the procedure is far from cheap — about $30,000, including the device itself, plus surgery — and the costs are not included in most U.S. health insurance policies.

The apparatus has been approved for use in Canada, says Carl Geisz, sales manager for Envoy Medical Corp. in St. Paul, Minn., but no Canadian surgeons have yet been trained to perform the implantation. It is not clear whether the procedure will be covered by health insurance in this country.

Meanwhile, the device and its implantation are available in most of Western Europe, as well as in Dubai and Brazil.

So far, roughly 500 implantations have been performed in the U.S., Geisz says.

“We’ve had a lot of international response, including a lot of interest from Canada.”

No wonder.

Although it was not intended as a publicity stunt, the 91-second video of Churman and her emotional discovery of sound has turned out to be a huge promotional coup for the manufacturer, which has been developing the device since 1996 at a reported cost of $140 million (all figures are in U.S. dollars).

“It was a big surprise to us,” Geisz says, referring to Churman’s video. “They did that on their own. It’s really amazing.”

Churman’s video, which she posted on YouTube little more than a week ago, was not the first media breakthrough for the device. Last year, conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh agreed to promote Esteem on his show, a deal credited with raising $16.4 million for the company.

Churman, who describes herself as “a small-town country girl,” made an appearance earlier this week on the Today Show in New York and says she hopes her sudden fame will help persuade insurance companies to cover the medical procedure that has already had such a profound impact on her life.

“I have been contacted by so many people who would love to have this implant but cannot afford it,” she wrote the other day on her blog. “Breaks my heart every time.”

Churman has also recorded some of her own first impressions following her arrival in this busy new world of sound, fury and snoring spouses:

• “Lady Gaga sounds horrible on the radio.”

• “Kisses sound all smacky-like . . . weird.”

• “Already tired of hearing myself swallow.”

• “Called my dad, and if I’m not mistaken I think I heard him get a little choked up.”

• “Can’t wait to get up tomorrow and hear the girls’ giggles.”

source
http://www.thespec.com/news/world/ar...the-first-time