Case Lesson 6: Family Narrative Hearing Loss

Sophia Brier-Heimbach
Ms. Vann
English 9
August 22, 2013
Unit 1 Lesson 6 - Family Narrative Hearing loss My grandma started to lose her hearing when she was twenty years old. It has decreased harshly over the years. Her hearing became as weak as four percent. It was very frustrating to deal with for both her and all of us around her. Hearing aids couldn’t handle her loss and she had to have surgery to overcome her disability. She also had to learn other ways to communicate like sign language. None of us really know how her hearing loss started. We all think it may have been because she would turn her headphones up too loud, go to loud concerts, and she worked in a factory. It is very difficult to pin point every cause of her hearing loss because there are so many possibilities of why her hearing loss increased.
She had surgery in 2009 for a Cochlear Implant.
According to the FDA, “A cochlear implant is an implanted electronic hearing device, designed to produce useful hearing sensations to a person with severe to profound nerve deafness by electrically stimulating nerves inside the inner ear.” (Medical Devices-Cochlear Implant ) She doesn’t have any hearing in her right ear. She has a Hearing aid in her left ear because she still has 15% hearing. Once she gets down to 0% she will have another procedure done to insert another Cochlear Implant. The implant has really helped her hearing. With the Cochlear Implant in, she has almost perfect hearing. When she takes all of her devices out she has a little box that sits by
her bed and it holds and charges the Hearing aid. She also has special phones in her home that have a louder volume than regular phones so it is easier for her to hear. All of her special devices she has to help are very successful. My grandma also uses sign language and it helps her a lot. She always has her devices in, but when she doesn’t we have to use sign language. She’s a very strong woman to be dealing with hearing loss like she has. She is sixty-three years old and has been dealing with it for forty-three years. It’s always been a constant struggle for all of us. Before she had her surgery, she had hearing aids in both ears. We have gotten used to repeating ourselves when we say something to her. It has always had its own level of irritation, having to repeat yourself constantly and hearing “what?” all of the time. It is very frustrating, but it’s also very frustrating for her to deal with too. I think it would be frustrating for anyone not being able to understand or hear what other people are talking about. Especially in a family setting where there are multiple people talking and making noise not just one. It is hard enough to understand one person, let alone a room full of people. We have been helping her through it and her two devices she has now have made her hear better than she ever has. We all know that she’s not going to have the normal hearing for the rest of her life and that it is not easy for her to deal with, but she is overcoming it. She is truly remarkable. I’m almost positive that there are not a lot of people who would be able to rise to the challenge and deal with hearing loss. To pay it forward, she also helps implant research by having testing done on her. This will help the doctors and researchers improve the device.

Work Cited

"Medical Devices-Cochlear Implant ." U.S. Food and Drug Administration. N.p.. Web. 3 Oct 2013..