Sound of REAL
music and
hearing
The film “Sound of Metal” rings true, but for reasons that have less to do with audiology. By Richard Einhorn One day, a musician’s worst nightmare comes true. Without any warning at all, he permanently loses his hearing, plunging headlong into deep, bottomless silence. This sounds like the “elevator pitch” for last year’s “Sound of Metal,” a terrific film in which music, hearing loss, and deafness serve as the backdrop for an exploration of loss and difficult life choices in the face of an unexpected personal tragedy. In fact, it’s a description of what actually happened to me 11 years ago. Like Ruben Stone in the movie, I—a composer and record producer—experienced sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and like Ruben, it upended nearly every aspect of my life. Yes, the audiology in the movie is not “true to life,” but as far as I was concerned, it didn’t matter. After all, it’s a movie, not a textbook, and I’ve never looked to Hollywood for accurate medical information. “Sound of Metal,” like all good narrative fiction, focuses on the emotional journeys of its characters. And for me, having actually gone through similar situations to those in “Sound of Metal,” the film rings very true. One day while setting up for a pre-concert event, Ruben, a heavy metal drummer (brilliantly portrayed by Riz Ahmed) hears some odd sounds in his head. Then much to his horror, his hearing completely flatlines. Like Ruben, my sudden hearing loss was equally dramatic. In June 2010, I decided to get away from 12
hearing health
hhf.org
everything to focus on my music. I was feeling a bit dizzy as I drove up to western Massachusetts but didn’t think it was anything but allergies. I was still dizzy when I got to the motel and went to sleep. I woke up at 5 a.m. and knew immediately something was terribly wrong. My ears were buzzing with tinnitus and odd ringing sounds, similar to but much louder than those Ruben experienced in the movie. Then I noticed I could no longer hear the very loud air conditioner in my room. I had gone deaf. Panicked, I jumped out of bed and immediately collapsed to the floor. I had severe vertigo and the room was spinning all around me. I knew I had to get to the emergency room. I crawled slowly to the desk to find a phone book. The words in the Yellow Pages swam in front of my eyes. It took over 30 minutes to locate a cab listing. Sudden hearing loss in both ears—what Ruben experiences in the film—is uncommon. More typical is what happened to me. Only one ear, my right, was damaged by whatever caused my sudden hearing loss. But unfortunately, I already had significant hearing loss in my left ear (moderate to severe, and due to otosclerosis, a bony overgrowth in the inner ear). And so, the result was exactly the same as it was for my fictional double: For all intents and purposes I simply couldn’t hear a thing. At first, just like in the film, the medical professionals had to write everything they said down on paper. But as I waited to get examined, I texted my wife back in New York City and she, a resourceful person, found a smartphone hearing app. I downloaded it. Wearing earphones, I was able to use my phone as a microphone and amplifier to
