Hearing Double
email: katrina.oliver@ozemail.com.au
Mum hears her boys at last - in Stereo
LOUISE TRECCASI, MEDICAL REPORTER November 07, 2006 01:15am Article from The Advertiser.
REECE and Ryan Oliver are looking forward to putting mum Katrina's hearing to the test.
Mrs Oliver yesterday became South Australia's first elective bilateral cochlear implant recipient to be able to hear with two ears and enjoy the benefits of "stereo sound".
After many years of "living in my silent world", Mrs Oliver had her first cochlear implant in 1998. Yesterday, the Woodville South mother-of-two had her second implant switched on. Unlike hearing aids, which amplify sound, a cochlear implant bypasses the damaged part of the ear and stimulates the hearing nerve directly.
Mrs Oliver said she would be "all ears" whenever her husband Scott and two sons needed her. "Two ears are better than one," she said. "My role as a mum is most important to me.
"Being able to hear my children and participate in their school activities is something I would never have been able to do prior to having a cochlear implant.
"My children know I will be able to hear them more now and they know they won't be able to get away with so much mischief.
"They will be putting my hearing to the test. Being able to hear my two boys is the greatest gift that the cochlear implant has given me."
Mrs Oliver contracted meningitis when she was four years old and suffered severe hearing loss in both ears. She was switched on at the SA Cochlear Implant Centre in Morphett St, city.
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