Meet Josh G.—an 11-year-old boy who loves playing sports, eating pizza with friends, and streaming his favorite shows. Josh’s mom, Emily, says it has been a long journey to get to this point. When Josh was young, he had a severe ear infection that started issues with hearing loss. Watch as Emily shares Josh’s transformation with bilateral Cochlear™ Baha® 5 Sound Processors:
Falling behind
For several years, Josh struggled to hear. Even with in-the-ear hearing aids, he fell behind in school and felt isolated from his classmates. Josh recalls that most things sounded “like mumbles.”
Emily says that as a mom, she hated to see him falling behind.
“I noticed him struggling to interact with other people,” she says. “He wasn’t doing well in school, and that’s when I realized that we needed a different option.”
Receiving Cochlear Baha 5 Sound Processors
An audiologist told Emily that Josh was “a perfect candidate” for the Baha® System. He received his first Baha® Sound Processor when he was 9 years old, and his second sound processor a year later.
Emily says she noticed an immediate difference when Josh began wearing bilateral processors.
“After getting the second Baha, he heard a lot better because it was just balanced out,” she says. “He was able to hear all around versus just on one side. It just showed so much improvement with his social life. He was super happy with it and I just, I just cried. Because that’s when I knew, like, this was perfect for him.”
Scoring with sound
Today, Josh is able to excel in sports thanks to the Baha System and the Cochlear Mini Mic 2. The coach clips the Mini Mic 2 to his shirt, so Josh can hear the plays and commands from anywhere on the field.
Josh uses Baha Safety Lines to make sure his processors stay secure while he sprints from one goal to the next.
‘Definitely worth it’
Emily said she is grateful that the Baha System has given Josh the gift of sound—and given her peace of mind.
“I feel comfortable as a parent knowing that whatever environment he walks into, his Bahas adapt,” she says. “He’s able to do so much, just anything that a regular kid can do, and it’s because of the Bahas. I know for a fact it’s because of the Bahas.”
Josh agrees. His advice to other kids is to have confidence and look forward to better sound with the Baha System.
“Don’t be scared, because you’ll hear a lot better,” he says. “It’s definitely worth it.”
Visit the Cochlear website to learn more about bone conduction implants and the Baha 5 system.
