Deaf woman hearing her voice for first time after Houston surgery is Internet sensation

Video of deaf woman hearing her voice for first time after Houston surgery
is Internet sensation

BY CLIFFORD PUGH

October 2, 2011

With all the depressing news going around nowadays, it’s nice to hear
something uplifting. Perhaps that’s why this video of a deaf woman listening
to her voice for the first time is so moving.

According to her blog, 29-year old Sarah Churman, a self-described Texas
“stay-at-home mommy, trophy wife and dog groomer,” was born with profound
hearing loss and has worn hearing aids since she was two years old. She
reads lips to understand what people say but had never heard the sound of
her own voice.

After receiving a device that was implanted in her middle ear and picks up
sound through her ear canal, she was recently able to hear her voice for the
first time — and as her reaction shows, the results are amazing.

Churman received the implant in Houston a couple of months ago at Envoy
Medical and returned there last week to have it turned on. The St. Paul,
Minn.-based company opened a center in The Woodlands that specializes in the
ear implant surgery last year after the Food and Drug Administration
approved Envoy’s Esteem hearing technology, “an implantable system that
converts mechanical vibrations from the eardrum into electrical signals,
boosts and cleans up the signals, and converts the signals back into
vibrations it then transmits into the cochlea,” Med City News reported. It
is the first fully implantable device to treat hearing loss in the United
States.

Among the investors in Envoy is Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale, whose
wife, Lynn, is the sister of the company’s CEO Patrick Spearman. Watch the
FOX 26 video that explains the connection.

Source:

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/10-02-11-06-55-video-of-deaf-woman-hearing-her-voice-for-the-first-time-after-houston-surgery-is-an-internet-sensation/

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Deaf Woman Hears, Video Sweeps Internet

A new hearing implant makes it possible.

By Ernest Champell
Saturday, October 1, 2011

A viral video on YouTube, showing a deaf woman hearing her voice for the
first time, is sweeping the internet.

Sarah Churman of Fort Worth, Texas, was born deaf. She has relied on
hearing aids since she was 2 years old.

Churman says hearing aids allowed her to hear some things. She recently
received an “Esteem” hearing implant which is embedded in her ear.

It works off ear drum vibrations, while most hearing aids use microphones
and speakers.

As the video shows Churman becomes emotional when the implant is activated.
Her husband shot the heartwarming video.

The joy and tears show how much the implant has changed her life.

Source:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Deaf-woman-hears-130896543.html

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