Here are some of our favorite “Moments” submitted recently via our Moments site. If you haven’t submitted a “Moment” already, please do. We love to hear how hearing healthcare professionals are impacting the lives of their patients and how patients themselves are enjoying a new lease on life.
“My last patient of the day was a recently retired man who had spent 40 years as a railroad engineer. He was a big, burly guy that was extremely gruff. Both the front desk and the doc’s assistant had made a special point to warn me about his “attitude.” As expected, he had a bilateral mild to profound SNHL. He and his wife both shared some of the hearing aid horror stories his fellow retirees had told him. Normally, I have no time for a demo, but with no more patients to see, I proceeded. I only had 961s on hand with normal power speakers; I figured that was a start. I put them in his ears and did a “first fit.” I recalled one of MY special joys when I got my first hearing aids – hearing the carbonation of Coke – and I was thirsty. I told his wife to stand behind him and whisper questions and I went and got a glass of ice and a Coke. I sat back at my desk, popped the top and poured myself a glass of Coke. I watched the patient’s face – around his eyes got a little red and he casually reached up to wipe away a tear. I attempted to change to subject, but he stopped me and said “It’s been almost 40 years since I’ve heard that.”
Kathleen, ENT Center of Conway, Little Rock, AR
“I fit a 13 year old girl with new updated hearing aids. She was born with a 70 dB loss binaurally and was a previous user with very large hearing aids and custom molds. She was very excited to have aids that were almost invisible to others. “I can cut my hair and put it in a ponytail for school now!”. She called me before she got home to tell me she could hear the cars passing by her window for the first time. Within the next few weeks I received a card from her and her family telling me how her grades in school had improved, she had cut her hair and tried all kinds of new hairstyles she found on Pinterest without having to be afraid of someone seeing her hearing aids, and a huge list of all the sounds she was hearing for the first time.
Raven Dye, Family Ear Nose and Throat Care, Southaven, MS
“My wife was complaining that I had to have the TV turned up so loud that it gave her a headache. With my new hearing aids I purchased the Unite TV Streamer and now I can even hear the TV when it is muted and my wife can read in the same room with me.”
Charles Battin, Cumming, GA
“After getting my hearing aid today, the first thing I did when I came home I asked my husband to call me on the land phone from his cell phone. It really was a great moment for me because I could hear him speaking in my left ear.”
Dorothy B. Holmes, Washington D.C.