Hearts for Hearing Blog
Rodri – as his family calls him – was born prematurely in Venezuela and spent the first weeks of his life in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and, according to his mom, survived thanks to oxygen support and antibiotics. She tells us, “We were told Rodri lost his hearing sometime in his first three months of life due to the antibiotics he had to be given to live.”
Josie was born at only 25 weeks and weighed one pound, eight ounces when she was delivered. Sadly, her twin brother passed away at 18-days-old. Thankfully, Josie was able to survive her tiny beginning, and she remained in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit for 143 days.
Ava was two when she was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss, and Lilly was diagnosed with deafness following her newborn hearing screen. Both sets of parents were independently referred to Hearts for Hearing and their little girls received their technology, audiology, and listening and spoken language therapy services through Hearts for Hearing. It was a teacher at their preschool who first introduced them and pointed out that they had something special in common, they each wear hearing technology.
Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma recently awarded Hearts for Hearing a generous grant of $200,000 to support its Newborn Hearing Screen (NBHS) programs across the state. The newborn hearing screen is a specialized screening performed shortly after birth to help diagnose hearing loss in newborns.
Parts of Hearing Aids Knowing the parts of your hearing aid can be beneficial for proper care and maintenance. It can also help you describe
Henrietta experienced hearing loss as a young adult. “Music is her love language,” says Mom, “and my vibrant, bubbly, gregarious child who loves everybody – and wants to sing and dance with you – found herself in an increasingly silent world. She was in depression.”
When Elijah was born, he was “absolutely perfect” recalls his mom. “We didn’t think anything of it when he did not pass his newborn hearing screen, and we were told it was probably just fluid in his ear.” Elijah was referred for a routine follow-up which again he did not pass. “Even then, it wasn’t scary for me because we didn’t have any hearing loss in our family, so we didn’t think it was even a possibility.”
Infant Crisis Services (left) and Hearts for Hearing (right) celebrating with the Chick-fil-a cow. Two Oklahoma Nonprofits Named 2023 Chick-fil-A True Inspiration Awards Grant Recipient
Oklahoma City Community Foundation, through its Opportunities for Children iFund grant program, provided $5,000 to support Hearts for Hearing’s annual summer camp which serves children
Michael Goldbeck was diagnosed with profound, bilateral hearing loss when he was 18-months-old in Albuquerque, NM. He was fit with hearing aids and then came
