Getting a Cochlear Implant

Printed in the Olathe News on June 20, 2007

Getting A Cochlear Implant
By Leonard Hall

Last week, I took the big step of having cochlear implant surgery. It was a big decision as the cochlear implant will have a major impact on my life.

Cochlear implant is a quarter size device installed on the skull under the skin with a wire inserted through the inner ear. With the use of a behind-the-ear computer processor, the sounds can be transmitted through the implant to the brain.

For many years, I had 20% to 25% hearing and speech discrimination meaning that I can hear and understand approximately 25% of verbal communication without lip-reading.

Ten years ago, while wearing analogy hearing aids, my speech discrimination dropped from 25% range to 10% range. Due to technology advance, my digital computer-type hearing aid restored my speech discrimination back to the 25% range.

Over the past year, I was struggling with a steady loss to almost 5% remaining hearing and 5% speech discrimination.

Hearing test showed that I can understand 5% of speech with my hearing aid in quiet environment, but understand approximately 50% to 60% of verbal communication when lip-reading.

If I know the persons and subject matters which are common in my work and personal life, I can understand most of the verbal communication. I am a good lip-reader.

In lip-reading those people with moderate to heavy foreign accent, mostly Hispanic people, it is frustrating as I cannot understand them. At some fast food restaurants in Olathe, my food orders may not be what I ordered.

With the worsening hearing loss, it is either obtain a cochlear implant or rely upon lip-reading as my sole mean of communication with hearing people.

I am still wearing a hearing aid in my left ear because it still recognizes sounds. My cochlear implant is in the right ear, which could not tolerate the use of a hearing aid.

With the cochlear implant, many hard of hearing adults with the use of the cochlear implant reported speech discrimination in the range of 80% to 90%. However, many of these people like me had enough hearing with or without the hearing aid to understand verbal communication in the past.

It is a different story for deaf adults who never had hearing in the past and had not understood verbal communication before. Some have reported very low percentage of speech discrimination with the use of the implant.

Hopefully, with the use of a cochlear implant, I am looking forward to 60% to 80% hearing and speech discrimination.

(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column for the deaf community and can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com.)