DAY THREE
“Hearing the World”
Jennifer, a 28-year-old woman arrived in the audiology clinic with a history of profound hearing loss since she was a child. Jennifer struggled most of her life with this condition without having found a solution. Her family could not afford hearing aids. The non-profits she visited in Guatemala focused on children, and by the time she visited them, she was already an adult. She dropped out of school in middle school because she could not hear the teacher and was failing.
Drs. Audrey Hiner and Sarah Lamoureux, the audiologists volunteering on our team, working alongside Guatemalan audiologist, Jose Pablo Asencio, tested Jennifer and diagnosed a severe nerve hearing loss. They were able to fit her with donated hearing aids. The moment they activated the hearing aids, Jennifer turned her head toward the voices of the audiologists and burst into tears. “The sound is amazing,” she exclaimed in Spanish. Our audiologists shared her tears as well, as she remarked that for the first time in decades she was “hearing the world.” She desperately wants to go back to school to complete her education. “You changed my life. God bless you. You have given me back the desire to live again.”
Blessings,
Julie Moorhead
Moorhead Team 857
