Page 3 Profile: Joanne Milne, deaf woman who regained hearing
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Your support makes all the difference.Are you paying attention at the back?
Good, because we have a most heart-warming tale to kick off your weekend. The remarkable moment that Joanne Milne, 39, hears sound for the very first time has been shared online – and it’s nothing short of a tear-jerker.
What’s her story?
Born with the rare condition Usher syndrome, Milne, from Gateshead, has been profoundly deaf since birth. But cutting-edge cochlear implants did what many thought impossible until recent years.
Wonders of modern medicine…
Indeed. But before we get bogged down in the technicalities, it’s worth pondering on the beauty that Milne found in a world that most of us take for granted. “Hearing things for the first time is so, so emotional, from the ping of a light switch to running water. I can’t stop crying,” she told her local paper The Journal.
And now for the science…
Cochlear implants are surgically implanted electronic devices. After they were inserted on to the scalp, Milne faced an agonising wait for them to be switched on so she could see if the operation had worked. It had - and her mother was on hand to record the emotional moment, which has now been viewed more than a million times on YouTube.
What does the video show?
After the implants are switched on, a nurse recites the days of the week to Milne. She’s soon in floods of tears, saying: “Wow, wow. Thank you. It’s absolutely amazing.”
What else has she said since?
“The switch-on was the most emotional and overwhelming experience of my life and I’m still in shock now. The first day everybody sounded robotic and I have to learn to recognise what these sounds are as I build a sound library in my brain.”
So dear i readers, this weekend, let’s take a moment to reflect on the simple pleasures of the everyday world.
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