14 DAY TRIAL // After 40 years of white noise, a deaf woman from Low Fell, Gateshead, heard music for the first time, and the touching moment was captured on camera by her friends.
Joanne Milne has been deaf since birth due to a rare condition called Usher Syndrome, a genetic disorder that is the leading cause of congenital deafblindness. In her mid-20s, the woman also started to lose her eye sight due to this terrible malady.
But last month, Joanne underwent surgery to fit cochlear implants. The life-changing procedure proved to be a success and her wish to restore her hearing was finally granted after a lifetime of silence.
The video embedded at the end of this article shows the emotional moment when Joanne's cochlear implants were switched on, allowing her to hear for the first time. She was overwhelmed with emotion when she heard her doctor recite the days of the week.
“The switch-on was the most emotional and overwhelming experience of my life and I’m still in shock now. I have to learn to recognise what these sounds are as I build a sound library in my brain,” Joanne said, according to The Journal.
“I can’t stop crying and I can already foresee how it’s going to be life changing.”
This was just the first part of a series of five sessions in which the volume will be gradually increased to allow her brain to adjust to the sound coming from her ears, through the implants.
Since she was diagnosed as deaf, Joanne has engaged selflessly in a series of campaigns design to help others living with Usher Syndrome.
“Being deaf was just who I was. Unfortunately when I became registered blind things changed dramatically and for the first time being deaf became increasingly difficult,” she added.
Ms. Milne's friend Tremayne Crossley, who recorded the moment of the switch-on, made a compilation of songs to provide her with an Introduction to Music. He selected a representative song for every year of Joanne’s life, and sent his compilation to radio presenter Lauren Laverne for her BBC 6Music radio program Memory Tapes. The playlist was played out on the show yesterday.
Usher syndrome is a relatively rare genetic disorder that is associated with a mutation in one of 10 genes and affects a person's hearing, vision and balance. This syndrome is characterized by hearing loss and a gradual visual impairment. Currently, there is no known treatment for the genetic condition.
