Bet the Vet can hear
George lost his hearing as a baby and doctors denounced him as mentally retarded because of his hearing loss. However, George proved them wrong and succeeded in his career as a veterinarian. He is quite well known by many in the profession, both in Australia and around the world, for his success despite his profound hearing loss.
George tells his story.
I was born in Brisbane in the days when there were no audiology facilities for children in Australia and oral deaf schools were in their infancy. I was the middle of three children, with two normal hearing sisters (though my older sister, after marrying and having children, has since become deaf and now has a cochlear implant).
When I was about 18 months old my mother suspected I was deaf but she was unable to get a medical diagnosis to confirm it. At the recommendation of our family doctor, she talked to me, encouraged me to watch her and coaxed as much baby talk as possible from me. Mum told me that while I was still a baby, she sat me on her lap and I watched her talk to me. She also spoke into my ear, and pressing a finger against each of her buttons, said: "Button - button - button" or "One - two - three". After a while, I was able to understand, and eventually repeated the words.
Very slowly, my vocabulary grew. However, as I could only utter single words, the medical specialists thought I was mentally retarded and denounced me as such. My deafness was not confirmed until, at the age of 4 years, I was tested by the newly established Acoustic Centre for Children in Melbourne. This was the turning point, the beginning of hope, though my path to success was marked with times of anger, frustration and uncertainty.
As there was no Oral Deaf education in Brisbane, my family moved to Melbourne where I attended the Glendonald School for Deaf Children. After 18 months, an oral deaf school opened in Brisbane and we returned to Brisbane. The prevailing philosophy in Queensland was that a severely/profoundly deaf child cannot progress beyond Grade 6 and oral deaf education was structured towards this objective. But I was doing well and my parents believed I could continue well beyond Grade 6.
I did not learn Auslan or any other sign language and spoke normally with good vocal intonation. Against strong objections from the oral deaf school principal, my parents enrolled me at a local public school where I continued to do well, enduring the stigma and taunts for being a 'handicapped' person, until I completed year 12. I continued my education at the Queensland Agricultural College with the view of pursuing agriculture. Dad had bought a sheep and cattle property in western Queensland some years before and I loved the land, working with animals and farming the country.
I graduated from college and after three years on the land, I noticed the isolated life in the country was not good for my communication. I was losing my speech and comprehension skills. A change of career path was necessary, and because of my love for farm animals, I decided to become a veterinarian.
My younger sister, who also wanted to become a veterinarian, and I entered university in the same year. She organized her friends to take copies of their lecture notes. In some lectures, lights were dimmed for showing slides and I couldn't see to lipread. My lecturers responded with concerned interest by organising short private tutorials to ensure I had as firm a grasp of the lecture details as any other student. It was with a great sense of achievement that I graduated without failing a subject.
University was not without its challenges. Soon after starting I sought help from the campus doctors to address the stress associated with my poor communication skills. At first, I was prescribed valium, but after a few weeks I was recommended as a practical class patient for students at the Speech Therapy Faculty. The recovery program worked very well. So well in fact, that when I visited the internationally renowned John Tracy Clinic for the Deaf in Los Angeles, the head of the clinic could not resist having my deafness tested and then declaring that my speech and communication skills were among the best, if not the best, he had witnessed for a person as deaf as I was.
I fulfilled my dream in establishing a new and successful veterinary practice in Walgett, a quaint country town in northwest NSW. I married and we had three children. I enjoyed life in Walgett and become involved with community activities. I even learnt to fly, gaining an unrestricted pilot's licence. After twelve years in Walgett, when my children were only 4 to 7 years of age, my wife died from breast cancer after a prolonged period of illness with chemotherapy. I needed to spend time being a parent to my young children so I sold my private practice, with its long hours, and worked as a District Veterinarian with the Walgett Rural Lands Protection Board.
Not long after my wife had passed away, my right ear suddenly went totally deaf. I couldn't even hear the loudest beeps for an audiogram. This created additional problems because a hearing aid was rather ineffective in my left ear. Despite this, I switched over to using a hearing aid in the left ear and learned some hearing skills with that ear. After about five years, the hearing in my left ear deteriorated. Soon, I would be totally deaf. I was planning to leave Walgett and move to Brisbane but instead I fell in love again, married and moved to Sydney where my children enjoyed better education opportunities.
Before leaving Walgett, I heard about cochlear implants and underwent extensive testing and assessments in Brisbane. There were concerns that I would not benefit from the implant because some adult cochlear recipients born deaf were unhappy with their implants.
In Sydney a different ENT specialist and audiologist re-assessed my situation. They expressed no concerns and I was implanted in my right ear on my return from my honeymoon. In those days, the operation required nearly half the head shaved, and the scar several inches long, held together with metal staples. For a while I looked like an extra from a Hammer Horror film.
After three weeks I was switched on. I began to hear sounds I had never heard before. It was a strange experience. Where I had been completely deaf to the high frequency sounds of consonants, I was now hearing them for the first time. Those sounds were at first alien and annoying such that I had them mapped quieter until I could get used to them. Even the lower-range sounds seemed more metallic than I heard with my hearing aids.
But I persevered with the implant. Rehabilitation services were in its infancy but I kept myself in the hearing world, persisting with the implant for communication, fine tuning as necessary until I became quite happy with it. Following the operation, I developed tinnitus in my right ear. For a while, it was loud, affecting my mental health. With professional advice and guidance, I learnt how to manage the problem and overcome its effects.
After staying in Sydney for two years, we moved to Canberra where I accepted a job as a public servant (veterinary officer) with Biosecurity Australia. This gave me an opportunity to further develop a career in veterinary epidemiology. There I conducted high level import risk analyses of diseases of animals and their products. It was here I encountered challenges which tested the capabilities of my cochlear implant and my communication skills.
I assisted with controlling and eradicating major animal disease outbreaks around Australia, including the horse flu outbreak and in 2001 I was sent to the UK to help with the devastating foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. I also attended several international conferences in Australia and overseas, presented scientific papers, and networked with internationally renowned veterinary experts. I even travelled to parts of Asia to assist with capacity building programs, helping to train veterinarians (some with very little English) from the ten ASEAN countries, in animal disease risk analyses.
After ten years of wearing the implant, a few electrodes began to malfunction. Three are now switched off. I decided to have another implant, but in the left ear. I realised I needed considerable rehabilitation and training to develop hearing in my left ear. It had only heard low frequency sound for five years after I lost my residual hearing in my right ear. I was implanted and switched on in mid-2011. Experiencing new sounds was far stranger than with my right ear. It still is, but I believe after about 12 months, I should be able to hear quite well with my left ear. Also, hearing sound with both ears was a new experience, but a pleasant one. Although I cannot tell the direction of the sound source, hearing with both ears seems to make hearing a more complete experience.
The cochlear implant brought me hope when I needed it. I had to face new challenges with communications after being implanted first in the right ear in 1996, then in the left ear in 2011. Overcoming these challenges had opened new doors for me and is continuing to do so.