{"id":9533,"date":"2014-04-25T18:48:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T18:48:35","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-04-25T18:48:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T18:48:35","slug":"grandfather_of_child_with_cochlear_implant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/04\/25\/grandfather_of_child_with_cochlear_implant\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandfather of Child with Cochlear Implant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Matt in Phoenix. I\u2019m glad you called, sir, welcome to the program. Great to have you here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: It is great to talk to you. I called you once 18 years ago. I was working as a paramedic. And right in the middle of our conversation I got a dispatch call and I had to hang up. And it\u2019s been 18 years trying to get through. But I\u2019m glad I waited.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wow. You had a dispatch call and you had to hang up 18 years ago.<\/p>\n

CALLER: The one time I got through to you I was working as a paramedic, and right in the middle of our conversation a tone went off and I got dispatched. And I had to hang up. <\/p>\n

<\/a>RUSH: Well, here you are, back at it, proving that you are not a winner of life\u2019s lottery but you are a stick-to-it-ive guy.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I am, although I will say I did win life\u2019s lottery with my grandson. That\u2019s what I wanted to talk to you about. He is five years old. My wife and I are raising him with our daughter. He was born with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. So he kind of hears but it doesn\u2019t translate into anything. They explained it as hearing white noise. We had a cochlear implant done three years ago. And one of the most exciting days of my life was the day six weeks after the surgery when they turned it on. I just happened to be talking and that little boy whipped his head around with an astonished look on his face and just smiled. It was absolutely incredible. Now we\u2019re thinking about a second cochlear. And, as you know, the nerve, when they put in the cochlear it does stuff to the nerve. And I\u2019m kind of wondering what you would advise on a second cochlear versus one, waiting longer? Basically, if you had to do it over again, from what you knew 10 years ago, would you have gone and done it immediately, or would you still have waited? <\/p>\n

RUSH: I can\u2019t change the circumstances I was given. Ten years ago I was told fairly confidently that in 10 years there was going to be a cure for what ailed me and so I should keep my second ear untouched so that the cure could be applied to it and natural hearing restored. <\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s kind of what they told us.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. But 13 years ago, it\u2019s all changed<\/a>. Thirteen years ago the best science of the day said that all any cochlear implant patient needed was one. Whether they were deaf in both ears or not, only needed one, because two would be cost prohibitive; the benefits were not measurable in terms of speech comprehension and a number of things. But 13 years is a long time ago. Now, the last two years the medical community has been imploring me to get the second ear done because they\u2019ve had an entire change of heart on the nature of bilateral implants and patient\u2019s success measured in terms of speech comprehension, perception of environmental sounds, spatial awareness, where sound comes from, and general enjoyment of life. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you, 13 years ago, I said, “Why are we only doing one?” I never believed there was going to be a cure for baldness. I thought that was smoke and mirrors, but I had to trust the doctors. I couldn\u2019t understand why I wasn\u2019t getting two at once anyway. God gave me two ears. Why are you guys only going to replace one of them? What do you know that he didn\u2019t? That was my thinking on it. But I trusted what they said. In your case, what is the nature of your son\u2019s deafness? Are there any real possibilities that his natural hearing could be restored in his lifetime? He\u2019s only five years old, you said.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right now we don\u2019t know what he is actually — we know he can hear noise. He just can\u2019t process that noise. The best way to explain it is it\u2019s like that nerve is asleep and it\u2019s constantly tingling. He can hear a noise but cannot process that into sound. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me step in here again and try to help the audience understand this, because, folks, I\u2019m going to venture to say that most of you don\u2019t understand what this man is saying. “What do you mean his son can\u2019t hear?” Because you can\u2019t relate to not hearing. People that have not experienced deafness — I can\u2019t emphasize this enough, you cannot replicate deafness. You can\u2019t put your hands over your ears or headphones on your ears and replicate deafness; you can\u2019t do it. <\/p>\n

You can close your eyes and be blind. You can strap yourself into a seat and not be able to walk. You can replicate other disabilities, but you cannot replicate deafness. So when you hear a man like on this call talk about “we don\u2019t know what our son is hearing, grandson, we don\u2019t know what he\u2019s hearing.” He can\u2019t tell them what he\u2019s hearing. He doesn\u2019t know enough. Everybody\u2019s flying blind here. He doesn\u2019t know if he\u2019s hearing words. The things coming out of his parents\u2019 mouths, he\u2019s never heard words. He doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s dealing with. His grandparents have no clue and the grandchild cannot tell them. It\u2019s the biggest mystery in the world. <\/p>\n

Now, imagine Helen Keller who was blind and deaf. She went nearly insane trying to communicate with people. It\u2019s really a tough thing for people who can hear to put themselves in a position of people who can\u2019t, because you can\u2019t relate. Hearing sounds is easy, it\u2019s nothing. When that\u2019s all somebody hears and they don\u2019t know how to convert them into words because they\u2019ve never heard words before — your grandson has a lot of time ahead of him with therapists. They\u2019re going to try to teach him letters and vowels and language and this kind of thing. And I would just see how it goes in that one ear. <\/p>\n

One thing to take solace in, though, regardless of what happens with speech and your grandson, he is always going to be connected to his environment via sound, and that\u2019s irreplaceable. Even if he doesn\u2019t know what you\u2019re saying, the fact that you\u2019re making sounds, he\u2019s going to interpret them some way and in conjunction with your facial expression, he\u2019s going to know when you\u2019re happy. He\u2019s going to know when you\u2019re not. He\u2019s going to be able to make connections, and you are going to establish ways to communicate. It may not verbal right off the bat. But the fact that he can hear environmental sounds, it\u2019s a safety thing. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s going to hear sounds like a car close by or whatever, it\u2019s all good no matter what the negatives are. There\u2019s good in all of it. From what I\u2019m being told by the doctors now, the second implant is only anecdotal. There\u2019s no really scientific empirical data on it, but all the anecdotal data is that the second implant is an improvement, to give you a short answer to the question.<\/p>\n

CALLER: We know he can hear because when he\u2019s doing something he\u2019s not supposed to, like using grandpa\u2019s iPad without permission, he will take his implant and pull it off the side of his head and let it hang down so that, well, if he can\u2019t hear us, we obviously can\u2019t hear him, either. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. Clever. You clever little guy, you. (laughing) But he can use an iPad with no problem? <\/line><\/p>\n

CALLER: He has learned to use the iPad. And for a kid who was born with a brain malformation and deaf — and we were told all sorts of things that were going to be wrong with this kid — he is just absolutely an incredible kid. We gave him an old iPhone that we no longer were using and have it connected to the Wi-Fi so he can use his sign language apps on it. We haven\u2019t been able to get him an iPad yet, but that\u2019s down the road. And we\u2019re looking at the technologies to be able to connect with Bluetooth to the iPad.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I was just reading last night — and, by the way, Matt, don\u2019t hang up here. Apple and their latest iOS 7 has some of the most amazing hearing aid software. It\u2019s astounding. For people who can hear naturally to be able to hear in crowds, to improve hearing in crowds. It doesn\u2019t do people like me any good. You\u2019ve got to have residual hearing. But Apple has some of the most incredible, you named it, low power Bluetooth, third-party hardware that works in conjunction with their system software that is apparently miraculous, used in conjunction with an iPhone. I wish, when I was reading the story, I wish it would work for me. But it doesn\u2019t because I don\u2019t have any residual natural hearing. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/map>\n<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ve gotta go. I\u2019m going to put you on hold. But I want Snerdley to get your address. I\u2019m going to send you guys an iPad Air so he can have his own, the least I can do. Just play yourself out with this first implant, see how it goes. You\u2019ve got all the time in the world to decide whether to do a second one. And the doctors will tell you the best thing to do on it. I have full faith that they know what they\u2019re doing there. I\u2019m not going to play doctor with you. Gotta take a break. Thanks for the call. Sit tight, we\u2019ll be back and don\u2019t hang up now, Matt, so Snerdley can get the address and tell me what color you want. We\u2019ll just send you the Air. I\u2019m not sure we have any minis left. The Air is better because it\u2019s lightweight, thin, big screen. We\u2019ll do that.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: The grandson\u2019s name is Eric. We\u2019re going to send him a couple of Rush Revere books<\/a> along with his iPad. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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