family voices
h e aring health foundation
Quite a Journey Cochlear implants, and the kindness of hearing healthcare professionals, help a young boy and his family succeed. By Sahar Reiazi
Above: Sahar Reiazi’s children (from left) are Ghazal and twins Sina and Saghar. Sina’s profound bilateral hearing loss was confirmed when he was 1 month old. Opposite page: Sina’s surgeon in Sydney, Dr. Catherine Birman, stands with the painting of the ocean that Sahar painted for her in gratitude (far right). Sahar also painted the delphiniums, a favorite flower of the teacher who worked with Sina after he received cochlear implants (near right).
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hearing health
hhf.org
I’m a mother of three wonderful children: Ghazal, age 6, and twins, Sina and Saghar, age 4. We’ve had quite a journey with hearing loss. It all began when our twins were born in 2016. We already had a daughter, then we were blessed with boy-girl twins! Life was hectic. I got all the help I could from a daytime nanny. My mother, sister, and husband Keyvan were also extremely supportive. In the hospital our daughter, Saghar, passed the otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test that checks newborn hearing, while our son, Sina, needed a follow up after failing his. The doctors indicated there might have been amniotic fluid left behind in his eardrums. Always an optimist, I didn’t give Sina’s test results a second thought. However, Keyvan has always been a realist. He was worried. He was right to be. As directed, we returned to the hospital with Sina when he was 1 month old. He failed the OAE test a second time. The staff scheduled him for an auditory brainstem response test (ABR) test. I was somewhat worried at this stage, but I just wanted to get the test finished with so the family would be at ease, feeling it was all a mistake and that Sina could hear. The day of the ABR test was one of the most defining moments for me in the process. The audiologist placed electrodes (sensor stickers) on Sina’s head as he was sleeping in his striped yellow and white onesie. I sat beside him. The audiologist shook her head. “Profound hearing loss in the left ear,” she announced. Then it hit me! I started crying silent tears. But I stayed hopeful, telling myself he definitely had typical hearing in his right ear. I knew he did, I thought, because he reacts when we make sounds. He reacts! The audiologist shook her head a second time and said, “Profound hearing loss in the right ear.” I was shattered. My face was wet from all the tears, the uncontrollable tears. The audiologist gave me a box of tissues. I picked Sina up as he was still asleep and couldn’t believe that I was so disconnected from him. I couldn’t believe he couldn’t hear my voice. In retrospect I realized he did have visual cues to react to sound. I had been feeling excessively hopeful in order to deny the truth. At age 6 months, Sina was fitted for hearing aids. I gained hope again, as I usually do. I identified an auditory-verbal therapist who was willing to come to our home and train us and Sina. We practiced and practiced. But Sina’s hearing declined. My husband, still the realist, said it was time to pursue what we had already been contemplating: “Sina needs cochlear implants.” And so we began to move forward with cochlear implants (CIs). I was raised in Sydney and am an Australian citizen, and I married my
