40 yo Woman Hears for the First Time
 

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Jo Milne has been deaf since birth due to Usher syndrome, a rare and incurable genetic disorder that can cause hearing loss and visual impairment. Now, at age 40, her new cochlear implants are allowing her to hear for the first time.

Milne, from Gateshead, U.K., was actually fitted with the implants in February, and had to wait more than a month for the emotional moment when they could finally be switched on.

"The switch-on was the most emotional and overwhelming experience of my life and I'm still in shock now. The first day everybody sounded robotic and I have to learn to recognise what these sounds are as I build a sound library in my brain," Milne told The Journal.

Milne is also able to listen to music for the first time. Her friend Tremayne Crossley, who posted this video to YouTube, put together an "Introduction to Music" playlist—including Prince, Bruce Springsteen, The Smiths, and Nirvana—which was played out for Milne on BBC6 Music earlier this week.

The first song she heard? John Lennon's "Imagine."

The sound isn't working for me

Pretty awesome stuff.

Reminds us all how we can sometimes undervalue the little things in life.

A woman hearing for the first time is pretty damn cool.
Now I'd like to see a video of a woman listening for the first time.

Cool

7/10. Would do.

That, my friends, is a video of pure JOY. A thing to behold. Truly Awesome.

I can't hear the clip! I can't hear the - oh, wait. I had the sound turned down.

:D I laughed.

It's hard to pick up, but I'm trying to figure out if she has a bit of an English accent even though she's never heard an English accent. That's fun to think about. I guess if you learn to talk by watching mouth movements, you pick up the local accent.

I guess that makes sense, because I suspect that deaf people in the U.S. speak with an American accent. It would be cool if American deaf people spoke with a British accent, though.

I can't imagine not ever being able to hear....one of my greatest joys is listening to my daughter sing.

I feel like this might be a stupid question, and I'm missing something obvious, but how can she understand the woman talking to her? Having never heard anyone speak, she wouldn't be able to understand conversational speech, right? Doesn't seem like she's reading lips the whole time...

It'd be easier to catch a video of Bigfoot.

Probably a combination of the two. Good point.

I can't hear very well in my left ear. An 80% loss, birth defect. In college, I tried a hearing aid. My left ear/right side of the brain couldn't understand. It sounded like the adult voices from Peanuts or Charlie Browns' teacher...Agrrrug buptrra.

From what I know, which is admittedly very little, they are really, really good at reading lips. So she is clearly overwhelmed because she's trying to correlate what she sees with what she hears (not to mention she's hearing for the first time, which is on the level of HOLY SHIT WOW). And, it seems the professional working with her is enunciating her words very carefully.

However, I don't know how music would work. And if there's anyone else who knows more about this, I'd be interested in knowing as well.

I'm very familiar with deaf people and their accents. You would not describe them as "American", or any other regional dialect. Deaf people who did not go to schools that were intensive in mainstreaming and heavily focused on oral communication (i.e. schools that utilized sign language instead) generally just have very poor pronunciation skills because they can't repeat a sound they've heard.

Correct, it's still all a matter of lip reading and trying to pick up on context. If you've never heard language before, your brain can't interpret the sounds... they actually perform tests after someone gets a CI where the speaker will put something in front of their mouth and the person with the CI has to listen and basically guess what was said. If you've been deaf your whole life, it can take years of practice, and I'm not even sure if it's possible or if modern CIs have been around long enough to know if someone can become completely non-reliant on lip reading. It can take several months to years just for your brain to learn how to separate out background noise and learn where different sounds are coming from, much less interpret them and then be able to interpret language.

It's crazy interesting how the brain works.

Awesome-now she can listen to Rush!

Wow, that' pretty kickass! Love that stuff!

They should have played a prank on her. Right when she regains hearing, blare some Justin Bieber right in her ear. She'll be wishing she went back to being deaf in no time.

Typical woman she ignores everything until she hears what she wants to here.

Apparently you had selective hearing in english classes.

Awesome she got her hearing back!:clap:

Bummer Imagine was her first song..

I would've gone with this one:

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One of her friends actually made her an 'Introduction to Music' mix tape. The first song she heard was "Imagine".

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/nor...-milne-6879841

Incidentally, she's also blind.

I would have gone with some Def Leppard.

Wow, that's a tough break. Diseases suck.

Quick question.

Would you pick:

Paraplegic or blind?
Paraplegic or deaf?
Paraplegic or both?

I don't know if this was meant to be a joke or not but I was laughing.

Pretty cool.

LMAOLMAOLMAOLMAO

Given that she's blind, you might actually have a chance.

Please point on the doll where the video touched you.

Can I go for 'none of the above'?

I think the order of preference would be:

none of the below
deaf
paraplegic
blind
deaf and blind, which would be really tough.

ROFL

Just don't let her feel your face.

She said everything sounded high pitched.

Not sure if the octave that she would hear Geddy Lee in is audible to humans.

Deaf moans during sex would be unbearable.

So I hear.

So, can pretty much any deafness be cured by cochlear implants now? Are there limitations to the technology? Just curious.

So dumb question. If she was Deaf for life and just had her hearing restored how did she know how to speak and how did she know the words that the woman was saying especially if she was blind and couldn't see her lips moving.

So if you're a fader fan just back from a game make sure you put the bag away.

well said. I was thinking the exact same thing. She was completely overcome with emotion; like emotion overload.

For the hard of hearing/deaf people who have suffered total hearing loss, it's hard for them to get a understanding on music, in terms of lyrics and sounds. But they can pick up the "bass" of the music, if that makes sense.

And they also use lip reading as well. I know I have used it, as it worked to my advantage on situations where, for instance, if I'm swimming, I don't have my hearing aids on, but it's still good to be able to communicate with others, just have to remind them to slow down a little bit so I can see their face.

It really depends on each individual, I would imagine.

LMAO

where is the 'dead' option?

Interesting. Thanks.

I'd also like to make the point that legally blind does not equal total blindness. Legally blind is defined by 20/200 or worse vision, meaning they can see at 20 feet what individuals with normal vision can see at 200. So, she probably has some vision, which she can use for lipreading with the therapist sitting so close.

Record "Would plow" on a soundbite and send it to her. You could be the first documented case of online dating that caters to the sensory disabled.

Seriously.

so you're saying that the simply red should sit at least 20 feet away on their date?

wood plow

Yeah but can she drive a car?

the answer is no.

Bring her to Arrowhead Stadium for a Chiefs game and watch her piss herself. (wait we already have fans that do that)


jk....that would be mean.

Trust me, its overrated.

No light, no angels....nothin'. Maybe I was just falling the entire time and never hit bottom. :hmmm:

I'd pick deaf. It's easier to see things and understand what's going on (it takes years of experience) and pick up things than blind. Plus, in my opinion, seeing is better than hearing.

Plus, it does have it's advantages. Like the crazy assed neighbor with a annoying little shit of a dog that continuously bark all the time, just for no reason?

Not a problem here, just switch off my hearing aids, I'm good to go.

She can sit on my lap.... She may stop crying just long enough to laugh at the size of my dick! I consider it a public service of sorts...

:)