Deaf couple hear each other after miracle op
SMILES lit up the faces of a deaf couple as they heard each other’s voices for the first time in 12 years of marriage...when scientists switched on implants in their ears.
Neil and Helen Robinson, who were born deaf, had communicated through sign language and lip reading.
Now they have become the first ever couple to receive cochlear implants at the University of Southampton audiology implant service.
The pair, who underwent surgery last month to implant tiny electrodes in their skulls, have started to hear for the first time in their lives.
The emotional moment the devices were activated was captured on video, with Neil, 50, joking that he did not like the sound of Helen’s voice.
But he added: “I am getting used to it now. It felt incredible, in a happy way. It felt really emotional.”
Neil reckons his new-found hearing may already have saved his life when he avoided an oncoming car after he heard the vehicle before seeing it.
The couple, who live near Salisbury, Wilts, are deaf because their mothers contracted rubella during pregnancy.
But they have lived full and happy lives, and their son, Neil, is an assistant curate at Salisbury Cathedral.
Helen, 54, tried for two years to persuade Neil to have an implant and he finally agreed after unsuccessful attempts at using hearing aids.
They first underwent surgery by Tim Mitchell, a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Nuffield Health Wessex Hospital in Eastleigh, Hants.
The implant consists of two parts, on the inside and outside of the skull above the ear, joined by a magnet.
Information from the outside is sent to 16 electrodes on the inside, which send electrical pulses to the brain.
The devices were switched on in January. Paul was filmed fighting back tears as he heard sound for the first Moment is an emotional one for Neil time. The implants have to be finetuned and it is unclear how much hearing Helen and Neil will recover.
The devices were once thought to only benefit people who had only recently lost their hearing but, according to the unit’s Dr Mary Grasmeder, they are increasingly used to treat people who have been deaf since birth. “People who have been deaf for some time don’t have the same expectation of what sound will be like,” she said.
“Their auditory system is not so well developed so it will be more difficult for them to process the information and to understand it.”