HU Launched Instagram account and website to help patients and their parents
it’s like,’ ” Hu said.
Hu earned a doctorate in audiology and works as a pediatric audiologist for Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.
She is deaf now and cannot hear without the cochlear implants she received in her late 20s — the first during audiology school and the second once she was at Rady.
Hu said audiology is “perfect for me because I feel like my entire life is optimized for my patients. … There aren’t that many audiologists with hearing loss.”
She said her deafness allows her to explain to her patients’ parents what their children are experiencing or what their life may be like as they grow.
Hu specializes in cochlear implants, “especially with teenagers,” she said.
San Diego resident Erin Brant said Hu is the audiologist for her two eldest sons and “has been an amazing resource” for the family.
“Because (Hu) has implants herself,” Brant said, “it was awesome to have someone with life experience, not just medical experience.”
Hu “is a lifesaver and so generous with her time,” Brant said.
Rosabel Agbayani, a Rancho Peñasquitos resident whose deaf son is a patient of Hu’s, said Hu is “doing something great with her life. Being an audiologist and mother ... empowers me to know my child has a future.”
Hu is “so down to earth,”
Agbayani said. “She has helped me personally and professionally, talking about ways we can make a difference for parents raising their hard-of-hearing and deaf children.”
While on maternity leave for her second child toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hu started an Instagram account (@mama.hu.hears) to
answer questions from patients who “were growing up and having kids of their own,” she said.
Among other questions, the adult patients wondered about hearing their children at night and communicating with pediatricians.
“It didn’t dawn on me that that was something different” for them, Hu said, “because that’s what I do. You just MacGyver your own way through your life. Nobody prepares you for that, especially motherhood . ... It occurred to me I could share with others so they can do the same.”
Hu, who now has three children, also began teaching an online course (available at mamahuhears.com) during the summer for parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. “Most of the time, children who have hearing loss are born to hearing parents,” she said. “The parents have no idea what to do, where to go, what
kind of village of support to build around them.”
Hu’s course includes information about navigating audiology appointments, specialists to seek, co-parenting tips and other advice.
She said the course also is becoming popular with audiology students and hearing professionals. “It was just a labor of love,” she said, “but I think it’ll be a really helpful tool.”
Agbayani said Hu’s program is “epic.” Learning that her child is deaf led to a “grieving process, trying to navigate the system,” Agbayani said. “To have a road map written by an audiologist and deaf person herself ... it’s amazing.”