Community Corner

Cochlear Implants Restore Quality of Life for Columbia Worker

Seminar in Columbia Saturday will provide information, access to medical practitioners and first-hand testimony on the benefits of the devices.

When they were first approved for testing in 1985, cochlear implants stirred controversy and created some division in the Deaf community but also created lifelong advocates who had had their hearing restored by the devices.

Twenty-six years later, the controversy no longer exists in the Deaf community, according to James Tucker, superintendent of the Maryland School for the Deaf, which has a campus in Columbia.

"Cochlear implants are not controversial in the Deaf community," Tucker said. "Maybe 20 years ago — yes. But not today."

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At MSD, many students, faculty members and parents have the implants, he said. They are an accepted part of the community.

While many deaf people have changed their minds about cochlear implants, many others who could benefit from the surgically implanted devices that restore — or create — hearing are unaware of the technology that "could turn their lives around," according to Christina Felton, a spokeswoman for a hearing health seminar being held in Columbia Saturday, Oct. 22.

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Nationwide, about 36 million adults have some degree of hearing loss, according to Felton.

Many of them have "severe to profound hearing loss that may affect their job performance, their ability to engage and interact with loved ones and often impacts their self-confidence," she wrote in an email to Patch.

Fewer than 6 percent of people who qualify for cochlear implants seek them out, because they are often unaware of the technology, Felton said.

Saturday's free seminar at the Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center in Columbia will include information about the devices and their potential benefits, who is eligible and insurance coverage, among other relevant topics.

Seminar attendees will be able to meet and hear from medical practitioners who specialize in the use of the implants.

Cochlear implant users will also be on hand to talk about their experiences.

One recipient who knows first-hand the quality of life changes possible with cochlear implant use is Adele Millwood, who works in Columbia for the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware.

Over a 16-year period, as a still-undiagnosed medical condition robbed Millwood of much of her learning, her quality of life took the same downward path.

"Not being able to hear really took much of my life away from me " she said last. "It was dangerous for me to be out alone — I couldn't hear cars coming, I couldn't talk on the phone, and I couldn't participate in conversations at social gatherings. My loss of hearing caused a lot of social isolation."

The Owings Mills resident, now 54, began losing her hearing when she was 32.

Annual exams charted a gradual decline in first her right ear and then her left.

Trips to top doctors, hospitals and clinics across several states left her frustrated, undiagnosed and still facing a lifetime of isolation, she said.

"No one could figure out what was wrong with me, and doctor after doctor told me nothing could be done," she said.

She was fitted with hearing aids that would either be "cranked up" or replaced with newer models as her hearing continued to decline.

"I thought that was how life was going to be, and I learned to live with it," she said.

After she had given up hope that her quality of life would some day improve — based up all the information given to her by physicians — Millwood received some news that did indeed change her life.

After an annual hearing exam in 2005, an audiologist told her that she was probably a good candidate for the implants.

Now with two implants, Millwood has gone from having 60 percent hearing loss with no word discrimination to 96 to 98 percent hearing capacity.

Millwood experienced her own lack of identity when she found herself almost totally deaf.

Because she does not know sign language, she could not participate in the Deaf community, and because she could not hear nor engage in conversation, she found herself on the outskirts of the hearing community.

She's grateful to once again enjoy conversations, concerts and every day living to its fullest, and she enjoys sharing her experience with others.

"I honestly can't understand the reluctance of having the surgery," she said. "I couldn't wait to have it, and I truly wish I had qualified sooner."

Seminar Details:

Saturday, Oct. 22

Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center

5485 Twin Knolls Road

7:30 AM - Registration Opens

8:00 AM - Exhibit Hall and Lounge Open

8:15 AM - 9:30 AM

•Education Session - When Hearing Aids are No Longer Enough

•Education Session - Living and Hearing With Cochlear Implants

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

•Meet local providers and find resources in Exhibit Hall

•Meet cochlear implant users and Baha users in the Cochlear Lounge

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

•Education Session - Getting a Cochlear Implant (Local Physician Panel)

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

•Meet local providers and find resources in Exhibit Hall

•Meet cochlear implant users and Baha users in the Cochlear Lounge

12:30 PM - Hearing Health Seminar concludes

 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here