John, Anne and Baby Todd

The brothers love each other and share many things...one of them is congenital deafness. John already has an implant and baby Todd will get his soon. Below is an interview with their Mom.


What were your feelings when you discovered John had a hearing loss? And Todd? (Maybe they were different?)

We were, of course, quite upset when John was diagnosed with a hearing loss. However, we had been suspecting he had some hearing issues for several months, so it wasn’t a complete surprise. We were surprised though by how severe his hearing loss was (profound). At the time we were pretty ignorant about hearing loss and had no idea what to do. My husband and I are both practical people, so our immediate response was, “We will fix the problem – whatever it takes”. I thought there must be some surgery or procedure that could be done to correct his hearing. I don’t think I fully understood the severity and permanence of the loss.

The night we found out about the hearing loss, the first thing we did was to go home and get online and start researching the topic of hearing loss. We read extensively on the subject. We also talked to our pediatrician, our pediatric ENT and friends and family, and we found two couples who also had children with hearing loss. We contacted them and started gaining information. We got referrals to Dr. Roland and to Melissa Sweeney, our auditory verbal therapist. We made appointments and got started right away in helping John to hear.

It was scary in the beginning because we had no idea how to begin helping John with his hearing, and we new that every week that went by he was getting further and further behind with his listening and speaking. So, we felt under pressure do something. We just trusted all the other parents, doctors, audiologists and therapists and hoped we were doing the right things for our son! It looks now like we did the right things.

When our next son, Todd, was born, we had his hearing tested early on. Sure enough, he also had a profound hearing loss, just like John. We were surprised and disappointed but not shocked since we already had one son with a hearing loss. I felt we were repeating the entire process! However, this time, we were very informed and new just what to do. So, it was easy!

Why did you choose Dr. Roland?

We chose Dr. Roland based on referrals we got from several people. He is an incredible doctor and is one of the best in his field.

How did you make your decision for implantation?

John has a severe to profound hearing loss so we knew implantation was likely going to be the best option for him. We did a trial with hearing aids for about 5-6 months. We trusted the audiologists, doctors and therapists again and felt that he was not receiving enough benefit from hearing aids to develop normal speech. We wanted John to fit in to mainstream schools and society and felt that implantation was the best (and probably only) way he would be able to do that. This was not a hard decision for us.

How did you come to trust us with John and Todd? Tell about your experiences.

I have been nothing but pleased with all my experiences with the Cochlear Implant team. We were connected with you all right away and everyone was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I felt everyone was trustworthy and was looking out for our children’s best interests. I have trusted everyone there, especially Melissa Sweeney, Janee Gisclair Willet, and Kathi Martin. They have been my main contacts, and I have showered them with questions and concerns. They are always available and willing to help in giving any kind of advice, helping with our equipment, doing the testing, etc.