Since becoming bilateral, a whole new world of sound has opened up to me. I had heard nothing in my left ear for over thirty years, and I was amazed to discover how much more sound two ears provided me with. Music sounds deeper and fuller...an experience that I had never had before. At five months post-activation I am finding that it is much easier to locate where a sound is coming from, which was another new experience. My two ears work together as a team...one can
Jennifer Thorpe
Bilateral Implants Recipient
Hidden Blessings is having TWO Bionic Ears! I am starting to understand more and more. My environmental sounds seem more real, like what I remember things should sound like. And I absolutely love my two Harmony systems! The sound quality is much improved - so much so that I am starting to "hear" people's accents and identify people's voices. The built in T-Mic is a wonderful improvement; I'm using it with an FM system in a noisy elementary school setting and I can hear - and understand - the kids!
Cindy Graf
Bilateral Implants Recipient
Now that I'm implanted in both ears, I feel so balanced. It's just phenomenal. I can't do without one implant now; I have to have them both on at the same time. I'm so much more relaxed. I can carry on a conversation in the midst of chaos, and I don't have to strain or pull the person I'm talking with closer to my ear. I can just sit there and relax and feel engaged.
Mike Royer
Bilateral Implants Recipient
We knew from the very beginning that we were going to go with two implants. Common sense tells us that two ears are better than one, and anyone who has suffered from a stuffed-up ear due to a cold can attest to how difficult it can be to localize sound. And after so many decades of sound-system development, we've all realize the superiority of stereo over mono! But more than this we did our own research, reading medical journals and attending (crashing!) symposiums held by leaders in cochlear implant research. All the experts seem to agree that bilateral implantation at an early age allows hearing-impaired children to catch up to hearing children.
Andrej Markovic-Vandenberg
Bilateral Implants Recipient
Every year, Emmy gets up in front of her class and talks about her hearing loss and implants. For 1st and 2nd grade, she wanted to write the speech herself. She sits down with me and I type as she comes up with what she wants to say. Then, she gets in front of the class and reads it. Afterward, she answers questions from the rest of the class.
We can't imagine our lives without the implant. Emmy is an amazing girl and she has such an incredible amount of self-confidence. We attribute that confidence to the implant and her comfort level with who she is. She knows she is deaf and she's proud of that. She loves her implants and wouldn't trade them for anything.
Emily's Speech in front of the class 2007
"Hi, my name is Emmy. When I was born, I was deaf. So, I went to the hospital and got a cochlear implant. When I was in Kindergarten I got a second implant. When I got my cochlear implants, I got a stuffed animal, Bionic Buddy. Buddy has Velcro on his head so he can wear BTE's like me. But, you can take them off whenever you want.
I wear my implants all the time and I never take them off. At night time I take them off so I can go to sleep and not hear any noises (like my daddy's snoring)! In the morning I put them back on so I can hear again."
Helen & Emily Cartwright
Bilateral Implants Recipient
If your kid needs glasses to see clearly, you wouldn't buy him a set of frames with only one lens in it. We went with an implant in each ear so Carson could hear in stereo and be better able to tell which direction sound is coming from. We felt not only would that increase his comprehension of sound, but also help him react the right way to sounds that signal danger-for instance, the sound of a car coming at him from behind and off to one side.
Carson Roller
Bilateral Implants Recipient
I wholeheartedly believe that two ears are what the natural auditory system is comprised of. We have two ears for a reason. Our brains work best when they have auditory information delivered through both sources. There are proven advantages with bilateral implantation so I think hearing with two cochlear implants is extremely beneficial for the vast majority of people.
Michael Scott, Au.D., CCC/A
Cochlear Implant Audiologist