Deaf 39-Yr-Old Woman Burst Out In Tears Hearing For The First Time After Surgery

Jo Milne, 39, from Gateshead,suffers from Usher syndrome , as well as being deaf, the syndrome also affects her ability to see
Thankfully the operation was a success and Jo is now able to hear

    My mind leaps forward to the weeks ahead. There is just a month to go before I have cochlear implants. The surgeons are confident they have a good chance of working for me.

    They tell me that, at the age of 39, I might be able to hear for the first time the voices of those I love: my parents, my two sisters, my niece, my friends, my colleagues. It’s an incredible prospect. But it comes with serious risks. If the auditory nerve is damaged it will strip me of even the fuzzy noise I’ve come to rely on (a sound that’s a bit like what you hear when you’re underwater).

I would be plunged into the total silence I experience at night when I put my hearing aids on the bedside table. I’m overwhelmed by fear.

My mother is worried, too. ‘You’re OK as you are, Joanne,’ she says. ‘What if it goes wrong?’

But what if it doesn’t? What if there’s a chance that I’ll take out my hearing aids one last time and never put them back in again?...