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A friend captures the inspiring moment Joanne Milne from Gateshead hears sound for the first time in her life after being fitted with cochlear implants
The moment a woman, who had been deaf since birth and never heard a sound, hears for the first time and has her life transformed has been captured on film.
Joanne Milne, 40, from Gateshead, was born deaf, and during her 20s also began to lose her vision due to the rare medical condition Usher Syndrome.
But last month she was fitted with cochlear implants and after 40 years of silence the life-changing procedure has meant she is now able to hear.
The incredible moment when she hears a nurse going through the days of the week was filmed by her mother and shows her bursting into tears in shock.


[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=UyECCMdlVFo[/youtube]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... -time.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

my daughter and I were talking about this, my guess is that she wasn't totally deaf, although it's possible she wasn't necc understanding the words, but was still understanding the lips. the procedure was apparently needed because the syndrome is taking her vision, her current means of communication.

SewTexas wrote:my daughter and I were talking about this, my guess is that she wasn't totally deaf, although it's possible she wasn't necc understanding the words, but was still understanding the lips. the procedure was apparently needed because the syndrome is taking her vision, her current means of communication.

I suspect this to be the case rather than total deafness. It is also possible/probable that she had some hearing prior to the implants.

The article said that she suffered from Usher Syndrome. This syndrome is characterized by hearing loss and a gradual visual impairment. The hearing loss is associated with a defective inner ear, whereas the vision loss is associated with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degeneration of the retinal cells. Usually, the rod cells of the retina are affected first, leading to early night blindness and the gradual loss of peripheral vision. In other cases, there is early degeneration of the cone cells in the macula, leading to a loss of central acuity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usher_syndrome" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Of course we all know that the UK Telegraph has the highest standards for ethical journalism of any newspaper in the world.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

The wife and I had the same conversation. I suggested she was reading lips but if she had been losing her vision since she was 20 and she is now 40 I would think she would be all but blind. I also wondered how she would know a high pitch from a low pitch.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

She's used to lip reading and is very verbal. Deaf people are not always mute, they can speak very well. I could tell she is an excellent speaker as my mother was. It may be hard for some to understand the way deaf people speak, but I'm used to it and understand easily. My mother was one of the first students in a deaf class in Houston. They taught them how to speak. My father, on the other hand was not as verbal as my mom. My mom could order off menus etc and communicate well. If they couldn't understand her words, I would step in or she'd write it down if I wasn't there. The only thing she could not do was hear. Sometimes she would not get the word pronounced right and I would correct her by spelling it phonetically. The word "antique" to her came out anteeky, but I told her no, it's anteek. Then she would pronounce it correctly. It wasn't very often, but sometimes a word could be tricky. I asked my mom every so often if she would like to have the "C over the ear" and she always said no, she liked being deaf. I think she might have been afraid of it. She lived in a different world for so long, it would be a shock, as it was to this lady.

AndyC wrote:Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but my screen is getting misty.

Thank you for having that thought and expressing it here, Andy, no matter how many nits might be picked by others. It is indeed touching.

This from one who has had a Cochlear implant for two years after becoming completely deaf in both ears. I consider it a miracle, and I can assure you that when I could hear again, tears came into my eyes.

As a collateral matter, something which may be of interest to this group is that my terrible concern about the current over-militarization of our nation's police forces, at all levels, coupled with night raids, arriving in awesome armed personnel carriers, crashing through doors, perhaps -- but perhaps not -- shouting "POLICE," the growing use of no-knock warrants, often at a mistaken address, often with a tame judge ready to issue a warrant by telephone without any concern whatsoever, hordes of black-suited combat boots crashing in, waving around long black guns and often wearing face masks, and such, caused me, when I became deaf, to be more concerned about my safety and that of my family being threatened by LEOs than by burglars, and I locked up my bedside weapon. Not being able to hear instructions from these intruders, or, perhaps even worse, misunderstanding shouted instructions by a panicked LEO, could easily result in my death, that of my wife, and maybe even an LEO or two, when I jump from my bed with my M-1911 in my hand.

This is not hypothetical panic on my part. This actually apparently happened just down the road from my residence not long ago, resulting in the tragic death of an LEO at the hands of a homeowner. Because of fear for the safety and lives of myself and passengers, for the same reason I no longer carry a handgun in my automobile, nor do I still routinely carry a concealed handgun. I have had a Texas CHL since they were first issued, and I have engaged in handgun marksmanship training and competition all my adult life, military, civilian, and for a long time as a federal LEO, including back in the days when perhaps a small pinch of cotton was the only ear protection available at a range. I relate this only to stress that I am no "anti-gun nut," but rather to report my fear that my handgun shooting, now for almost 60 years, may well have contributed to my hearing loss, and to encourage others here to not be sloppy about ear protection.

I trust I am not considered to be an "anti-LEO nut" either. My experience as one myself for many years has made it very clear to me that there are good ones and bad ones; smart ones and not-so-smart ones; and ones who can calmly face an unusual situation and others who shoot first and save questions for later when not necessary. I say again, "when not necessary." Again, a matter of personal judgment.

Since I cannot wear my Cochlear hearing aid while sleeping, and I am again completely deaf, probably the case for all Cochlear implant recipients, my ex-bedside weapon remains locked up at night. This may well be an overreaction on my part, and there is nothing to be gained for anyone to be smarter than me and tell me that, but my personal judgment remains, and will remain, unchanged. The judgment of others might differ here, but so be it. To somewhat paraphrase a common expression, one is entitled to his opinion, but I need not agree with it.

Tks agn, Andy.

Jim

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

She wouldn't understand.

There was a documentary on a younger guy who had the implant done. He was born completely deaf. In the end, he ended up turning it off as he found it made it harder to communicate. It would be like being in a room full of people all speaking different languages than what you know.

nyj wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

She wouldn't understand.

There was a documentary on a younger guy who had the implant done. He was born completely deaf. In the end, he ended up turning it off as he found it made it harder to communicate. It would be like being in a room full of people all speaking different languages than what you know.

I don't understand your comment. My mom was 100% deaf, as I posted earlier she DID understand the spoken word through lip reading and spoke English very well. When you have a disability your mind and body work together to fill in the missing function and gives you heightened skills in other areas. Often my mom would spot the ambulance while driving, way before I ever heard the sirens coming.

This technology works with the brain, so not everyone's experience is going to be the same, just as LASIK surgery works on some and not others.

B332da, I'm sorry that you feel you need to put away your weapons, but I totally understand your point of view. I hope the cochlear has helped you.

CHLLady wrote:

nyj wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

She wouldn't understand.

There was a documentary on a younger guy who had the implant done. He was born completely deaf. In the end, he ended up turning it off as he found it made it harder to communicate. It would be like being in a room full of people all speaking different languages than what you know.

I don't understand your comment. My mom was 100% deaf, as I posted earlier she DID understand the spoken word through lip reading and spoke English very well. When you have a disability your mind and body work together to fill in the missing function and gives you heightened skills in other areas. Often my mom would spot the ambulance while driving, way before I ever heard the sirens coming.

This technology works with the brain, so not everyone's experience is going to be the same, just as LASIK surgery works on some and not others.

B332da, I'm sorry that you feel you need to put away your weapons, but I totally understand your point of view. I hope the cochlear has helped you.

Your mom didn't have a cochlear implant, though? Their brain does not understand what words are or what noises are. They can learn to associate things, and learn how words sound. It's all a learning process that some may find more difficult than doing what they know. All of the new stimuli can be overwhelming and distracting.

CHLLady wrote:

nyj wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

She wouldn't understand.

There was a documentary on a younger guy who had the implant done. He was born completely deaf. In the end, he ended up turning it off as he found it made it harder to communicate. It would be like being in a room full of people all speaking different languages than what you know.

I don't understand your comment. My mom was 100% deaf, as I posted earlier she DID understand the spoken word through lip reading and spoke English very well. When you have a disability your mind and body work together to fill in the missing function and gives you heightened skills in other areas. Often my mom would spot the ambulance while driving, way before I ever heard the sirens coming.

This technology works with the brain, so not everyone's experience is going to be the same, just as LASIK surgery works on some and not others.

B332da, I'm sorry that you feel you need to put away your weapons, but I totally understand your point of view. I hope the cochlear has helped you.

Thank you CHL Lady, for your kind understanding of my situation and my decisions which were not all that simple to make. You probably read between the lines my impatience with other persons sharing my hobby of marksmanship shooting who, while having perfect hearing themselves, have criticized so vehemently my decisions about having a deadly weapon handy at certain times.

Many persons, including some on this very forum, may be experts on many things, but understanding the many different consequences of a disability like deafness requires a little experience, like both yours and mine, before one becomes a credible expert, not that I would desire to have them walk in my moccasins, and, between the lines I am sure you have ascertained my impatience with some of these experts.

After responding to your question by once again expressing my view that the implant was so successful that I consider it a miracle, let me offer a comment related to yours dealing with the mind and body working together to fill in a missing function.

One of the undesired consequences of the surgery I had for the Cochlear implant was that the surgeon who removed my prior means of hearing and installed the new means of hearing could not avoid cutting a nerve which gave me a sense of taste. He had advised me after several MRIs that this was a possibility, and I knowingly accepted the risk. Another disability not easily understood and analyzed by the amateur is a loss of taste. I will only leave to the imagination of the minds of the readers what this might mean to one with that disability, particularly one whose dear, and so understanding, wife is such a marvelous cook.

But ... through the passage of time another nerve on the opposite side of my head from the implant has begun to take the place of the one accidently, but innocently and unavoidably, cut by the surgeon, and I no longer, to stretch a point, but a valid point in general, must put Tabasco sauce on everything, and I mean everything, in order to taste something.

Another miracle? Perhaps even more of one than regaining my hearing. The latter took no human intervention. The mind and body are amazing in their restorative capacities. I estimate that my sense of taste has, after two years since the surgery, been restored to perhaps 75% of what it was before the surgery. When the surgeon, before the surgery, advised me that the nerve may be cut because of its proximity to another nerve having to do with hearing, he told me that my mind and body may, of themselves, overcome the loss, but that he could not guarantee that would happen in my case. I can only count myself as being twice fortunate.

Meanwhile, other experts continue to weigh in.

Should there be readers interested in the nature of the surgery involved with a Cochlear implant, they might start here. CAUTION, you may be oversensitive and should refrain from watching the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt27XDkz5eU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jim

CHLLady wrote:

nyj wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Okay, I'm stumped. If she was totally deaf, how is it that she understands English? No doubt she learned to read English, but that's not hearing the pronunciation of the words. It would be like someone today knowing how to read Hieroglyphics hearing someone speak the language of ancient Egypt.


Chas.

She wouldn't understand.

There was a documentary on a younger guy who had the implant done. He was born completely deaf. In the end, he ended up turning it off as he found it made it harder to communicate. It would be like being in a room full of people all speaking different languages than what you know.

I don't understand your comment. My mom was 100% deaf, as I posted earlier she DID understand the spoken word through lip reading and spoke English very well. When you have a disability your mind and body work together to fill in the missing function and gives you heightened skills in other areas. Often my mom would spot the ambulance while driving, way before I ever heard the sirens coming.

This technology works with the brain, so not everyone's experience is going to be the same, just as LASIK surgery works on some and not others.

B332da, I'm sorry that you feel you need to put away your weapons, but I totally understand your point of view. I hope the cochlear has helped you.

Your Mom didn't hear the spoken word so she wouldn't have known how it sounded. Lip reading is visual not auditory, but I can see how someone could learn English faster if they could look at the person speaking and relate the sound to what they understood from lip reading. That said, I don't believe the woman in the video could have understood the spoken word instantly when the switch was turned on. As another Member noted, she apparently could tell the difference between a high and low frequency sound which indicates she either had some hearing or that she did at sometime in her past.

Chas.

My brother is 90% hearing impaired. He has worn hearing aids his entire life, went to a deaf college and knows sign language and can talk rather well. There is a difference between someone who is deaf vs hearing impaired. Now most all who get the implant are totally deaf.