I Can Hear You Now - Part 1

By Mitch Traphagen

Editor: Many of us are familiar with stories of people who struggle for years with declining hearing, and the excitement they feel when they finally get hearing aids. Here's Mitch Traphagen with his story. This article was originally published in the Observer News (Florida) and is republished with Mitch's kind permission.

This is part one of two parts

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I haven't heard the sound of crickets chirping since 1975. In fact, my hearing disorder was reaching the point at which I wondered how much longer I could keep my job. I record all interviews for stories, but even the recordings, played loudly over and over again through noise-canceling headphones, were becoming difficult for me to understand. Increasingly, I depended on my wife to serve as a translator for everything I couldn't clearly hear.

But that wasn't fair to her - nor was it fair to the people I interviewed for stories. Something had to change.

Russell Ward stands in sharp contrast to the cynical wisdom that suggests the government does nothing to help people. As a counselor for Florida's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Ward spends his entire day helping people in one of the most basic ways: to get jobs or keep the jobs they have. I am one of Ward's success stories - he helped me to keep mine.

After years of suffering severe hearing loss, I learned a few things. One is that few people have the patience to repeat something four or five times - as would be expected. Another is that there are a few general responses that tend to work when not everything someone says is heard. Unfortunately, "tend to" isn't the same as always.

Most reporters carry notebooks to record pertinent pieces of information from interviews. I, however, had long since resigned myself to carrying a digital recorder for the simple reason that I rarely heard everything people were telling me. With a recording, I could use a computer to enhance the volume and quality and still do my job. Well, almost, anyway.

A Hillsborough County sheriff's detective called one day to discuss a case. I was able to hear less than half of what he said, but my recorder was on so I felt safe in continuing. I responded as I thought appropriate in the gaps in conversation, thanked him and hung up the phone. When I listened to the recording, however, I wondered what the detective thought of me. At one point, he asked a question and I responded with, "Wow!" There were other similar occurrences on the tape - enough to make me consider that this might be the time to give up my job.

A few days after that call, I heard about the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. A week after that, I met Russell Ward.

Years ago, I was told to avoid getting a hearing aid until I had neared the point of no longer being able to function normally. At that time, hearing aids were basically amplifiers that increased the volume on everything. My hearing disorder, however, could not be helped simply through broad amplification. Often, I could make out the sound but just couldn't understand what was being said. As such, I was told that a hearing aid would do nothing more than blast away what remained of my hearing.

When I walked into the Sun City Center HEARx office on Cortaro Drive, I was at the point of not being able to function normally. On that visit, I discovered two things - the first was that technology had changed dramatically in the past two decades; the second, that Russell Ward might be able to help. So, rather than making an appointment with HEARx, I made an appointment with Ward at his Tampa office.

Hearing aids are expensive. So expensive that, for many people, including reporters from community newspapers, it is often necessary to do without. The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation recognizes that reality and, through various grants, can provide hearing aids to people at no cost. There are no income requirements as part of the program, but the person must be employed, and hearing must be necessary for the job. A solitary laborer may not qualify, but a secretary would.

From a government standpoint, it is simply a good investment. A few thousand dollars spent to allow people to keep their jobs is far less expensive than paying for unemployment.

Ward is a product of old Florida - of a time when housing was cheap and people were friendly and far less cynical. He is professional, plainspoken and easy to talk to. During our meeting, he asked about my job and my hearing loss. He asked for background information, and we generally conversed about how I had coped thus far and the problems I was facing. He filled out the remaining pieces of my application for the program and made an appointment for me at HEARx. He scheduled another meeting at his office to take place after my hearing evaluation.

HEARx office manager Gay Gianniotes is one of the few people I can hear correctly. Her voice is loud and her enunciation is crystal clear. She caused me to wonder if I truly needed hearing aids. But unless she were to join forces with my wife to provide round-the-clock translation for all my other interactions with the world, there was little doubt that I needed the devices. This was confirmed two hours later, after extensive testing by audiologist Cecilia Wickert.