pondering2One comical day in July last year I was referred for a Cochlear Implant. My middle son had a routine check up with the Ear Nose and Throat Department at the Hospital. There were some concerns that he was suffering from a conductive loss of hearing. He received a clean bill of health. However, before signing him off, the doctor felt the need to consult with his boss. His boss, the head ENT surgeon, took a quick look and declared herself to be satisfied. The conversation that followed went something like this. “Are you the father?” I replied that I was. “Are you deaf” I replied in the affirmative. “But you speak beautifully.” I thanked her and in an effort to refocus her on my son jokingly stated that he was responsible for my fine speech. She was not to be distracted. “Have you heard of cochlear implants?” Again I replied in the affirmative. “You could benefit from one. I will refer you to the Ear, Nose and Eye Hospital.” She left the room, came back a few minutes later and told me the deed had been done. A week later we received my son’s ENT report and there at the bottom of the report it confirmed that I had been referred for a Cochlear Implant.
Since July I have not heard from the clinic. I have to confess that the referral left me in a bit of a quandary. After first laughing off the way the referral was made I have found myself seriously contemplating whether I should have a Cochlear Implant. I live in the country where sign language interpreters are expensive and hard to come by. I was born hearing, losing my hearing around the age of 10. This makes me a prime candidate for the implant owing to the fact that I have a memory of sound. I have three hearing children who prefer speech over signing. They try very hard to sign but are not yet fluent. I miss music. Deaf friends are hundreds of kilometres away. An Implant could help me socially. The list of reasons to have one continues to grow.
It is not just me. There is, in fact, a bit of a revolution going on. More and more individuals who are considered active members of the Deaf community are beginning to consider Cochlear Implants. Several in recent years have gone through with the Implant and have been pleasantly surprised with the benefits that the implant has provided them.
Adrian Doyle has been Deaf since birth. Adrian is well into his thirties and has been an active member of the Deaf community for all of his life and has other members of his family who are also Deaf. Adrian wore hearing aids pretty much from birth and enjoyed the benefit that the aids provided him. In Adrian’s words “ …sounds like a car zooming by, doorbell, dog barking, door closing, one to one conversation within limited range, telephone ringing ….” , all these sounds were part of his everyday life.
At age 25 Adrian’s hearing declined rapidly to the point that he no longer could hear any of these sounds with his hearing aid. Adrian went through a process of researching the benefits of the Cochlear Implant and decided after some intensive research to go through with the surgery. He professes that he was very sceptical about the benefits that he would get from the Cochlear Implant. However, he felt that as he could no longer get benefits from hearing aids there was no harm in trying.
Adrian has been very surprised at the benefits he has received from his Implant. He has no regrets and enjoys the benefits of access to sound. He has also found communicating with hearing peers much easier. Despite his initial scepticism he is rapt with the outcome.
Peter Miller, 47, is another who has recently had a Cochlear Implant. Peter has worked in fibre optics with Telstra for a number of years. Peter has a deaf brother and learned to sign relatively late in life. He has strong oral skills and participates in many Deaf community events. Most recently he chaired the awards committee for the Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association annual awards night in Victoria.
Peter decided to go through with the Cochlear Implant because in his words. “I wanted to improve my opportunities to advance my career. No matter how much interpreting I received I needed to communicate with my work colleagues all of the time.”
At Telstra Peter has an empathetic employer. When needed Telstra are always more than willing to provide for his interpreting needs. But for Peter this was not enough. He needed to be able to communicate fluently and at will with his colleagues. Peter was only recently switched on in January of 2009. He said being switched on was “.. a weird feeling.” But he is enjoying discovering a myriad of, “.. weird and wonderful sounds.”
Gayle, (not her real name), has been an active member of the Deaf community since her teens. She lost her hearing at six years of age. Now into her forties she, like me, also has a memory of sound. Gayle is a staunch Deaf community advocate. She has been quite vocal at times about the implanting of children.
After three decades of working and living in the Deaf community Gayle was at the cross roads. Socially the Deaf community was meeting her needs. However, she found that by limiting herself to only the Deaf community she was having difficulty establishing meaningful relationships with the opposite sex. She also had hearing children. Dealing with the school, communicating with the children, their friends and their parents was becoming increasingly stressful.
For Gayle considering a Cochlear Implant was a confronting thing. After some soul searching she decided to have an Implant. She has been surprised at the benefits she has received. She had thought background noise would be an issue but it has proven to be less a problem than she had feared. She is finding numerous benefits from her Cochlear Implant particularly when communicating with hearing people outside the Deaf community. Says Gayle, “ It is still early days but the implant, in the short time I have had it, has opened doors to me I thought were otherwise closed.”
These stories are a far cry from the early emotional days of the Cochlear Implants where headlines screamed that Cochlear Implants in children were child abuse. They are a far cry from the days when Deaf community militants decried the implant as the death of the Deaf community. Like Mark Twain’s death, this would appear to be an exaggeration. Many young people with Cochlear Implants become active members of the Deaf community. Perhaps The Deaf community have matured and mellowed. One thing is for sure, like it or loath it, we are likely to see more deaf people who are active members of the Deaf community have an implant in a similar vain to Adrian, Peter and Gayle. Is it the way of the future?