Coming to her senses
Cochlear implants have brought a complete transformation to the life of Martine Laverty, 22, who has had to live without her hearing for 20 years.
Martine had her operation in August 2005. A month later, the electronic device that had been implanted into her ear to help her hear was switched on, with startling results.
"It wasn't pleasant at first," Laverty remembers. "I was expecting to hear like I had done with my hearing aids, but everything sounded very fuzzy and abnormal. But the sounds started coming through with greater clarity over time.
"I'd only had access to low frequency sounds with my hearing aids, but now I can hear conversations and listen to the radio. Using the phone is something I've been able to do recently for the first time. It's not perfect – I feel a bit like a foreigner in the hearing world. But I am getting used to it. Although I've never found rustling paper so annoying, and I can tell you that birds singing isn't that fantastic.
"All I wanted from the implant was to make conversations easier," she says. "I had great difficulty hearing people and lip-reading was tiring. Now I can relax more when having conversations. I don't need to look at people's lips so much, so I can look at their faces and pick up on what's being said. The implant isn't perfect, but it's made life quite a lot easier."
