The Gift of Hearing

Ear Science Institute Australia has empowered many people in our local community to enhance their hearing abilities through our dedication to innovative research and development of contemporary treatments.

Since its inception in 2001, the Institute has benefited our hearing impaired community with providing the expertise necessary to achieve independent lifestyles. These inspiring stories are anecdotes of some of the determined people that the Institute has helped to overcome the barriers of silence.

• Danny Clarke - Double Cochlear Implant recipient, 2005
• Brendan Newman
• Jordan Smalley - Cochlear Implant recipient, 2004
• Fleur Dyer - Cochlear Implant recipient, 2004
• Christian Harris - BAHA recipient, 2003
• Nalda Searles - Cochlear Implant recipient, 2003
• Connor Hamilton - Cochlear Implant recipient as a toddler, 2002

At 25 years old, Danny Clarke became the first person in WA to undergo landmark surgery and have cochlear implants put in both ears at the same time.

Danny initially lost hearing in his right ear at the age of eleven, after falling two metres head-first on to concrete when playing on a swimming pool. In a twist of fate fourteen years later, Danny became profoundly/totally deaf after an unprovoked attack outside a nightclub in Fremantle fractured his skull and damaged the cochlea in his left ear.

Up until the attack, Danny worked as a search and rescue helicopter crewman for which he had trained for many years. His job involved dangerous search and rescue missions over land and sea, in events where communication played a large part in a constant verbal exchange with the pilot.

"I had worked very hard so I was in a position to help and save others - for that to be taken away in one punch is devastating." He says.

However, through it all, Danny has remained positive and energetic. His cousin Natalie Starkey, who has helped him communicate though lip reading and sign language since the incident, saying "He has shown a sense of humour through all of this and has taken it all in his stride - he is a real inspiration."

Danny's family, friends and colleagues from Canadian Helicopter Corporation raised more than $25 000 for one cochlear implant with Ear Science Institute Australia (ESIA) donating the second.

Danny's $50 000 bionic sound system is connecting him back to the world of noise and providing hope in achieving his ultimate ambition to return to his job.

"I'm getting more positive about the possibility, as my progress has been fast," he said.

In the past five years, 59 year old Boddington grandfather Brendan Newman has progressively lost his hearing. It was a WA first when radical surgery was performed to help Mr Newman hear again by implanting a device directly into his brain.

A rare hereditary condition called Neurifibromatisis Type II had caused life-threatening tumours to grow in his brain. When trying to remove these tumours that were tangled in hearing nerve cells, the remaining 10 per cent of hearing in his left ear was lost.

However, the eight-hour surgery to remove the tumours was the only way to offer Mr Newman with the chance to hear again. The auditory device was then implanted into Mr Newman's brainstem, the lower part of the brain linked to the spinal cord.

The auditory device will operate in a similar way to a cochlear implant, but stimulates the brain directly rather than the ear to help him recognise sounds.

This technology that stimulates the brain directly rather than the ear to help recognise sounds is ground breaking and offers relief for patients ESIA have traditionally not been able to help.

Jordan Smalley's determination to make his own phone calls led him to seek the independence that a cochlear implant can bring to people with profound hearing loss.

For many people, speaking on the telephone or taking business calls can be something of a chore. Not so for Jordan Smalley. For him they were goals.

The 36 year-old Claremont plumber was born with a moderate hearing loss but managed to get by with hearing aids and lip reading. As he grew up, his parents believed he should be integrated into the deaf community, but Jordan's determination and strong will saw him attend one of Perth's exclusive private boy's schools. But by this time, Jordan was profoundly deaf.

"I had a lot of trouble at school, especially when the teacher turned his back or we had to watch video presentations," he says. "It irritated me not knowing what was going on."

And even though Jordan persevered for the next 20 years, he became increasingly frustrated at the impact his hearing loss was having on his social and work life.

"I had to rely on people and I didn't like doing it, especially the phone. I just wanted to be able to phone my girlfriend and say 'hey, how's your day going?' or phone my boss to ask him plumbing questions when I was out on site," says Jordan. "Luckily, there was mobile SMS Messaging."

In August 2004, Jordan's dream of making a phone call was to become a reality after Professor Marcus Atlas and the team from the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute successfully fitted him with a left-sided cochlear implant.

Jordan has now gained the independent lifestyle he once could only yearn for.

"I'm now able to phone my sister and thank her for all the phoning she's done over the years," laughs Jordan. "That's the key... freedom and independence!"

Jordan and his family allowed the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute to capture his remarkable experience on film. This very personal, yet inspiring journey is part of a promotional DVD that will be used to raise much-needed funds for research into ear and hearing disorders. We would like to thank Jordan and his family together with StateWest Credit Society for their generous time and contribution to this important project.

Fleur Dyer's enthusiasm for life has enabled her to achieve what many can only dream of.

Despite being born profoundly deaf, Fleur successfully completed school and University, relying purely on hearing aids and lip reading to get through tutorials.

After graduating, Fleur established her own business, consulting to the mining industry on geological issues. Her next priority was to hear.

In 2004, Fleur received a cochlear implant from the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute, a decision that changed her life.

“My first new sound after leaving the audiologist's room was the crunch of my footsteps on the edge of the road. I had to stop and marvel at this sound, as I never heard it before!” says Fleur.

“The world can certainly be a noisy place”, Fleur adds. “However, it's far better to be part of it and to appreciate life's various sounds, than be isolated in a world of lonely silence”.

Christian Harris feels reconnected to the world after receiving a BAHA implant.

It all started in early 1991. I had ringing in my left ear so I decided to visit some doctors. I was then sent to see a Specialist who diagnosed Tinnitus. Although I learnt to live with the Tinnitus, the noise in my ear became progressively worse and after much persuasion I finally convinced my doctor to send me to a different specialist.

My intuition proved correct. A CT scan revealed a small tumour which would grow considerably over the months to follow. Towards the end of 1993 I had my operation. It was considered a success, because none of my facial nerves were affected when the tumour was removed.

For the year that followed, I had to get used to the idea that I could only hear from one side. This affected my life greatly, both at work and socially. I was unable to grasp the full content of business meetings and found myself relying on the minutes to keep me informed. Socially I became a bit of a recluse as I could only hear mumbling when with groups of people. I asked my doctor at every subsequent visit if there was anything he could do to reconnect the severed nerve, but the answer was always no.

Then in 2002, my life changed when my GP suggested I contact Professor Marcus Atlas, an ear and skull base surgeon with the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands, Western Australia.

He was very enthusiastic and suggested I try a new device called the Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA). The device is implanted into the bone and the hearing aid is then attached to this implant. From the moment I started to use the device I noticed a difference. I could actually understand the radio announcer on the car radio and at the cafeteria I could hear what people around me were saying. It was like getting a new lease on life.

Most of the time I forget I'm wearing the BAHA. In fact, as I have very short hair, the BAHA becomes a point of conversation. Since March this year I have been using an attachment that plugs into the phone socket of the TV or stereo so I don't have to deafen the rest of the family.

I would recommend the BAHA to anyone that has had an acoustic neuroma removed.

Nalda Searles gained renewed confidence for teaching with a cochlear implant, despite profound hearing loss in both ears.

Nalda Searles knows all about the difficulties associated with hearing loss.

The well known fibre textile artist and teacher started to lose her hearing in the 1970's due to otosclerosis, a hereditary condition that leads to a progressive hearing loss.

In September 2001, Nalda suddenly lost residual hearing in her left ear and although she wore a powerful hearing aid, found that it provided her with limited benefit.

In most cases, middle ear surgery is helpful for this condition, though unfortunately, Nalda developed profound hearing loss in both ears.

Nalda found teaching increasingly difficult, despite attending lip-reading classes and using fax and email as a means of communication.

In March 2003, Nalda was implanted with a left contour 24 Cochlear implant by Professor Marcus Atlas and his team from the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute. Since her 'switch on' Nalda has made wonderful progress.

"I struggled with hearing aids until the cochlear implant was done. There is no comparison, as I can now hear all the sounds and I am learning to recognise them for what they are," she says.

The implant has given Nalda increased confidence to return to teaching and attend conferences. It has also given her freedom to return to the life she once had.

Nalda has been an Artist in Residence at the School of Visual Arts at both Curtin and Edith Cowan Universities in Perth. Her artwork involves the interaction of natural fibres with man-made fibres to produce intricate, textured work.

Teaching has always been part of Nalda's life. She has run several textile bush camps and teaching art to Aboriginal communities in the Western Desert. In 1991, Nalda obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art from Curtin University and has been heavily involved in street art projects with the Ninga Mia fringe camp communities in Kalgoorlie. In fact, it was during this project that Nalda inspired Pantijit Mary McLean, who went on to win the 1995 Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award.

Nalda is a typical example of how the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute is enabling individuals with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss to access sound via a cochlear implant: "I am so grateful to all those wonderfully dedicated people who have devoted their lives to improving the hearing process".

Connor Hamilton received a Cochlear Implant just before his second birthday, a miracle to his parents.

As a lively three-year-old Connor Hamilton learnt to sing songs and nursery rhymes at playgroup.

Nothing so extraordinary about that, except that Connor was born profoundly deaf and only spoke his first word in February 2003.

The tiny piece of medical technology that made possible the breakthrough was a cochlear implant, inserted by Lions Ear and Hearing Institute Director Professor Marcus Atlas. Connor's parents felt that they were blessed with a miracle.

"He has been making rapid progress since he had the implant and in the last month it has skyrocketed", his mother Elizabeth McGregor said. "He is starting to talk and babble and repeats everything we are saying. He is saying 20-30 words on his own and at the moment we are trying to get him to use two-syllable words".

Connor first came to attention of the Institute when he was one year old and had a history of delayed speech and language development.

Extensive audiological testing, including behavioural and brain stem-evoked response audiometry, revealed a profound hearing loss in both ears.

Hearing aids were urgently fitted as a trial, but even the most powerful aids did not provide Connor with significant benefit or improvement in his speech and language development. It was then decided to proceed with a bionic ear and a state-of-the art Contour Nucleus cochlear implant was inserted in April 2002 and activated in May, enabling Connor to hear for the first time just days before his second birthday.

He is one of the first West Australians to receive the new technology implant, which has self-curling electrode wire that contours to fit snugly to the residual nerve fibres in the cochlear, unlike previous models which had straight flexible wires that were curled to fit the device.

Professor Atlas said the device's innovative 3G speech processor meant Connor was able to use the latest speech processing strategies to improve his ability to hear sound and speech and develop language.

"All the technology is Australian", he said. "Australia has really had a major role in cochlear implantation development and is seen by the rest of the world as a leader in cochlear implantation". Professor Atlas said there was an enormous amount of innovation going on in hearing reconstruction in the external, middle and inner ear.

"There is a whole lot of new technologies becoming available so that many people who previously thought their hearing could not be improved can now be helped", he said. Children with hearing problems were being picked up much earlier, thanks to the universal neonatal hearing screening program.

"That is really having an effect on outcomes", he said. "All of the evidence points to these children doing better in terms of speech and language development when they are implanted earlier". New technology meant it was possible to insert an implant in a six-month-old baby, and in Perth the procedure had been successfully performed on a one-year-old child.

In Connor's case, after his operation he underwent intensive rehabilitation at the Cochlear Implant Unit at Princess Margaret Hospital, where mapping of the cochlear implant and therapy was undertaken using a team approach with audiologists and speech pathologists. He was then referred to the Speech and Hearing Centre, which he attends three times a week for speech and language development.

"It is a lot easier to communicate now", Miss McGregor said. "Before, he was having temper tantrums because he was frustrated, he wanted to communicate and couldn't".

"Now that he's starting to vocalise, he has calmed down. The other thing is that he is a lot more independent". Miss McGregor said it had been a lot of hard work but she would not change anything. "If he was a normally-hearing child, I wouldn't have had the connection I have with him", she said.