At 99 years and six months old, I had a Cochlear Implant! One of my audiologists says I am possibly the oldest person in the world to have had a Cochlear Implant. I had a rough start but I’m getting there - wherever ‘there’ is.
How marvelous Cecil! Were you 100% deaf from birth, or very HOH? Have you been learning English speech easily? Your children must have been so delighted. Am sitting in WA State all misty eyed that you're taking in 99 years of sounds you had missed.
Science at it's best. My 21 yr old daughter received her cochlear implant about 16 yrs ago. Best moment of my life to see her hear for the first time. She's now a neuroscience major in her junior year of college.
PRAISE GOD for your daughters VICTORY! It's a JOY to know she has what she needs, most of all LOVE from GOD and her family. Say hi to her from me. Be sure to tell I said, "GOD BLESS YOU!" Have a GOD day. I pray that the Lord continues to lift up you and those you love. God bless you too! Peace, Lynne 🍃💜🍃
Wow! I'm so glad there's more answers now. My ears are dimming with age but, its always been a little off. I read lips but sometimes can't so, I run the sentence over in my head to get the cadence and flow. Most of the time I get it but, not always.
The thing that most people don't understand about someone this age hearing for the first time is that they don't understand language at all, only sign language. He has a long road ahead of him to learn words and what they all mean and how to pronounce them. I wish him and his family the best!
My son heard his first sounds at age two. I cried like a baby when I saw his expression upon hearing. I am so thankful for the Audiology department at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario...CHEO, in Ottawa. My son is 28 now and tho profoundly deaf, with the use of hearing aides, has learned to speak and is getting a college education. Happy new year everyone! 🤗♥️🇨🇦‼️
I know when I was little n lived in Ottawa that hospital was amazing to me when I had pneumonia. Man I miss Ottawa so much. I’ve been in London for 26yrs now
@@tinybrownin Ottawa is still there -- why not put it on your bucket list to visit maybe next year? Move heaven and earth to make it happen, and you'll have a wonderful time. Go for it!
@@babawali3021 That is such a nice post to encourage someone. I just wanted you to know that. It's a great idea. May God bless you and your caring heart! Peace, Lynne 🍃💜🍃
250 thumbs down? For this beautiful, awe inspiring, heart warming video? Hey you 250 out there, what hopelessly sad lives you must be living. We pity you.
There's a big argument in another thread about the deaf community feeling like this hurts their pride (some of them). I say it isn't freaking about them, just him, if he wants implants. My friend's oldest son died because he couldn't hear while crossing the road... I don't think anyone should be shamed for wanting to have the means to hear things they can't see.
My guess is that they may have down-voted the instructor because she launched straight into the practicalities and instructions to him instead of letting him absorb the moment and share it with his family with hugs and love. She could have given them a couple of minutes. You can see that they are bursting with emotion and each time he and they crack a smile and a joke she kills it and reverts back to her strict instructions. She needed to back off for even a moment to allow them absorb but she dominated everything, ignoring the emotional aspect of this milestone in the young man's life. People don't always downvote the entire video, just an aspect of the video. This is why I ignore whenever people downvote videos. There are often very reasonable reasons for doing so.
I was curious how a 15 year old would react, being '15-cool and all,' not the open 'Wow' of younger kids or openly emotionally communicative women. He did superbly well! Both 15 'cool' and very communicative in subtle expressions, glances, reactions..
My daughter is 23 and heard for the first time 2 years ago this month. This is awesome. I’m that mom. I cried my eyes out when i saw her face. Congratulations!!!
My mother was deaf, I wish she could have done this. When she was a child in school, she was made fun of and called names. She was ridiculed by her teachers. Her hearing aid required 2 huge batteries they were strapped to her legs. It became such a problem that my grandmother moved and sent my mother and my aunt to school as twins so my mother could understand. Her hearing aids got smaller as time went by. I spent my childhood talking loudly into my moms chest!! ( the aid fit in her bra) my friends parents said I was loud, lol, till they understood. I would have loved to see her hear 💕
Even if the technology existed earlier, cochlear implants don't work on all types of hearing loss. There are different types of hearing loss which effect different parts of the ear or brain. The most common type of hearing loss is sensorineural. It is a permanent hearing loss that occurs when there is damage to either the tiny hair-like cells of the inner ear or the auditory nerve itself, which prevents or weakens the transfer of nerve signals to the brain. Less common, is conductive hearing loss which is caused by damage or blockage to the outer or middle ear. Mixed hearing loss is a combination of sensorineural and conductive hearing loss. Cochlear implants are used on people with sensorineural or mixed hearing loss (in mixed hearing loss only the sensorineural loss will be effected, I believe). Depending on the type of deafness your mother had a Cochlear implant may or may not have worked.
Oh that's beautiful! I'm so sorry your mother had to go through such torment from an ailment that is not her fault! Bless her soul. I hope you are all happy together💖💕💓
Thanks for sharing. I felt every word. Your Mom did her best and she raised you to LOVE and UNDERSTAND. That's a gift. God bless you and your family. I said a prayer for all of you. Peace, Lynne 🍃💜🍃
@@crogers3602 She was born deaf, my grandmother (my moms mom) was deaf and at least one of g'ma sister was deaf also. It was different back then. They treated ppl with disabilities like they were contagious. Thanks for the info.
This has to be so overwhelming for this boy. Because his language is by hand he can also see mouth movements but to hear voices has to be so foreign. I think that’s something we don’t think about, we just assume when he hears voices he’s going to start talking but it’s not that way.
Hey Hey guys! This language is indeed Afrikaans from the Boere in South Africa. Its a very old form of dutch and has changed over many years into its own dialect :)
Bianca M thanks for saying that, I couldn't identify the language. I speak fluent Spanish and Italian, there are a few similarities, obviously a Latin based language...all that aside, so happy for this handsome young man, it must have totally changed his, and his families, world, in the best way possible.
This is very hard work for him ... serious business. Often those with disabilities know they can never be "cool" within their culture; because of the they can develop who there truly are as a human being. All humans have built-in kindness and compassion when culture doesn't kill it.
He won't know them as words, but sounds - an entirely different thing. Sign will still be useful to him to distinguish each sound as a word. Six years on from this video he should now have a good vocabulary and understand most aspects of grammar. Speaking should also be enhanced. I hope he is doing well now.
@@stephensaltau6481 ...The boy is at the very earliest stages of hearing. Any music would be a very strange thing, a cacophony; and he would not know the words, I love you, unless they were accompanied by sign language by his mother. Hearing is a completely complex other world that it will take many months, if not possibly years, for him to adjust to, especially with speech. Deaf awareness is absolutely not the same as hearing awareness.
At about the same time your mom got up crying, I grabbed a tissue and began to cry into it. You are a beautiful young person, and I hope this opens new doors for you. Welcome to the world of sound! I hope you find it a good place!
Bless his heart. At one point he looked frustrated, all but exhausted. It's gotta be difficult to know he must learn to speak and understand the sounds he hears in Afrikaans, not simply read them. With luck he learned some before before it got worse.
This is heartrendingly beautiful. I don't know if he hears what we normally hear but obviously he is getting the message and he can enunciate. This is too wonderful. Thanks. Good on ya mates.
I am not first language Afrikaans, so it's likely not perfect, but this will help those who don't know the language... Speaker 1: There you go, Jurie, we turned you on. Good. Let's first turn off your hearing aid. Do you hear that noise? Good Jurie, I'm going to count for you now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. How does that sound? Jurie: inaudibe Speaker 1: Do you hear the language? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Jurie: inaudible Speaker 1: Do you hear that? Talk to Mom and Dad a little bit. Mother: I can't. Speaker 1: Mom is crying because she's so happy for you. Okay, I'm going to do something now that's very difficult. I want you to guess. You might not be able to do it yet, but we'll just see. Okay? I'm going to say a number from one to ten, and you must say what I'm saying. Okay? We'll see if you can guess. So, I'm going to block my mouth. He might not be able to do this yet, but we'll just see. Guess, okay? Three. Three. Jurie: inaudible Speaker 1: Three. Jurie: I hear peep. Speaker 1: Okay. That's right. You're not there yet. Okay. But how does it sound? Good? Weird? Jurie: Good. Weird. Speaker 1: Good. Weird. Okay. How do you feel, Jurie? Jurie: I just hear peep. Speaker 1: That's right. He hears the peeps. This is what often happens in the beginning. He hear's peeps, he doesn't hear voice just yet. That will change. For now it's peeps, and later it will get better. Speaker 3: So, that's the brain that- Speaker 1: The brain that adapts to the sense. Do you hear when they speak? Look how he turns, and that's at a distance. Listen to Dad's voice for a bit. Maybe you can talk with him a little? Listen to your father's voice. Dad: I don't know what to say. Speaker 1: What are you going to do after this? Speaker 3: Shipping I heard. He wanted to know why everyone wanted to go shopping later. Dad: Can you hear me? Jurie: I hear peep. Speaker 3: He hears one peep. Speaker 1: Yes. Dad: He's reading my lips first. Speaker 1: That's right. He must. It's right that he reads lips and uses his other ears to hear. All that will fill in the picture for him.
I have a cochlear implant. I have watched a number of these videos lately. I have never had all the other wires coming from it. At the switch on time after a month from the operation all I Had was the disc connected to a computer so the lady could get all the readings on what I could hear then it was programed in to the outer part of the implant and that was it. I have next to perfect hearing. Life is worth living again
If you look at his reactions, he's used to holding back his emotions. BUT. You can sort of see that he reacted differently than a lot of the other people who have had these cochlear implants. Most just start crying. He looked, a few times, like he felt this sense of relief, like he just got one of his life time goals realized. Kid is intelligent and very strong willed. With the help of science, he just completed something that he expected might come a LONG way down the road . . or . .maybe even not at all.
There are other videos with uncontrollable crying. I prefer those. 😅 There aren't many of guys who cry or even get teary-eyed. BUT if you search for videos about seeing color for the first time, there are a lot. (Color blindness disproportionately affects boys.)
Ozzy Girl !* you may not at all. 👂Hearing ever for the first time can be not so great at all. It's a huge 💥impact on the person. It's a significant intrusion to that person's life *** It takes awhile to get used to it. The brain goes into a massive perceptional ⛈️storm!
I have found that the Dutch in general, do not display very much in the way of visible emotions... (I live in Lynden, Washington, where the Dutch abound).
NipkowDisk Oh, that's interesting. I thought it was a combination of shock + teenage boy, but apparently culture was a big part also. Thanks for the insight.
Our son was two years old when he loss his hearing to meningitis. 3 months latter he was implanted with a cochlear implant. It was an adjustment at first hearing sound again, but he worked through it. We take hearing for granted. You can see in these videos just how much it effects and chances peoples lives. This young man's life will be better for it.
I was going to say, "viruses are a b*tch, but they're not necessarily a virus. Could be from bacteria, fungus or parasite. From breathing it in or changing diapers or coming in contact with poo...
whenever I see these videos of especially children being introduced to sound for the first time I always wish that they would play music and the reason I say that is I'm starting to lose my hearing and it's tormenting me because I think that what I will miss most is music
From what I have heard though, it takes some time for the brain to learn to process the inputs from a cochlear implant. Many people describe just hearing a lot of clicks the first few days.
wow, I speak fluent German and this blew my mind... totally confused (until I read the comments below, now I know). How damned interesting. A form of Dutch that seems closer to German, so much so i understood at least 50% or more.
AlternativeDesign100 ...Afrikaans is not a form of Dutch. [AFRI] kaans is as the name suggests..... It is an AFRIcan language.... Some words of Dutch, German, Khoi and Malay all mixed together to form this language, which makes it very unique. This boy's reaction & body language/demenour is typical of the Afrikaner culture which is reserved Christian/Calvanistic.
@@lsmith7266 I am Dutch and I could understand every single word of it (but I'm a linguist and have heard/read Afrikaans before). As a German, you can easily recognize the counting and the days of the week here.
Very very very wonderful & heart warming & incredible hopeful for everyone who can’t hear! By the way I know that this is absolutely NOT important or the point but he is such a handsome kid.
As a parent who sat there watching is own daughter hear sound for the first time it's very emotional. Our daughter is 33 now, she found it hard entering the earring world. That was a surprise to me and her mum, we automatically thought she would be happy.
They are speaking Afrikaans, Afrikaners are quite reserved people in public so it's understandable he isn't too emotional would probably cry or show emotion etc away from cameras in private with his family.
hebneh I think he's reserved. He was most certainly prepped for this seeing as he had to have surgery to implant a hearing device. I think he's very reserved as all the other videos show emotion not confusion.
The mother isnt being narcissistic, the technician said "Talk with your mother for a bit" to which the mother said "I cant" and moved back, crying, to which the tech said "Your mother is crying because she is so happy for you"
The things we take for granted. I can imagine how overwhelming this has to be. Living in a silent world your whole life and while it would be wondrous to hear, the world is so damned loud.
This is how you know the video is real unlike so many others on youtube: just because he hears, doesn't mean he can speak properly. Think about it, if you have never heard how to pronounce words your whole entire life, then you surely aren't going to automatically know how to pronounce them and what is being said just because your auditory senses now function properly. The videos that show people supposedly hearing for the first time yet they speak perfectly without any speech impediment or difficulty are fake! This is real!
Yes, hearing impaired babies have normal vocal cords. They eventually stop babbling as they can't hear themselves as hearing babies can. When my child was first given the gift of being able to hear, it is a joy that is hard to describe. So happy for this young man and his family.
I felt exactly the same way as you at first viewing but after reading through some of the comments here, from both those that have had this specific procedure done and also some of the families that have commented on their own personal experiences, where it's not necessarily been the greatest of decisions they have made, I can see why they may want to dislike the video. There's also a technical issue in regards to the subtitles as it automatically subtitles in French and despite trying to change the language (for my on personal use) into English, the translation is terrible. Despite me refreshing the page several times, it refuses to translate and or just get stuck on one sentence and then crashes the video. I personally pressed the like button but I can now see why others may not. 🙂
So wonderlik! Dankie dat julle die video deel. Ons vergeet partykeer hoe gelukkig ons is om te kan hoor. Ek hoop alles het goed gegaan met die aanpassing en ontwikkeling!
Who needs language or sign language! Wait till he hears Beethoven or Bach for the first time, birds singing, a waterfall, thunder and storms, the tinkling of bells, the sound of a Tibetan bowl, the sound of ocean waves lapping the shore, crows cawing, sparrows twittering and chortling, leaves rustling on trees, a baby laughing. What a gift this is! The whole world of sounds will communicate with him and hold communion in his soul.
My toddler had garbled language that I could barely understand even as his mother. He also always had a runny nose that I thought was just due to teething. I finally took him in to the dr and found out he had constant ear infections with fluid behind his ears and he couldn’t hear. He never ran a fever or seemed in pain. He had tubes surgically put in his ears and as soon as he woke up and heard my voice his eyes were locked on me and you could see him processing the sound. Within a week he went from babbling nonsense when he spoke to speaking clear as a bell. It still amazes me to think about it.
Het is goed te verstaan. Ik kom uit Nederland leuk om te horen. Een famillielid van mij heeft gewoond in Joburg helaas overleden. Succes met je gehoor 🌍☺
Its Amazing that even though I cannot speak this language that they are speaking, I can still feel & appreciate his & his family's joy & happiness. His mother could hardly contain her happiness, father as well & I was just so happy for him & I could not understand a word, for maybe when she was counting, I think! Beautiful video. He is so handsome!
It is such a miracle, the people who invented this have done such a wonderful thing. The poor mother got so emotional she had to leave to cry. When my little boy who had been born with very bad eyesight and I knew it, I had to argue with doctors to test him, after I started crying and begging the doctor to please give him an examination then they found he was blind in one eye and extremely limited in his vision in the other eye. We finally got him glasses and he could see and he giggled and looked all over I again cried so I know how this mom feels.
They were testing how much he can actually truely hear and how much is still from reading lips...its to help him get the most out of his new device. Remember it is an overwhelming situation for him....he wants to hear so much. You actually have a sweet heart