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Let's Hear it!

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Hello, my name is Brina. I am a mother of two and a wife to my husband, Ben. We have been married for 17 years in September. Many parents want what is best for their children. No child born into this world comes with a handbook. We as parents do our very best to ensure our children are taken care of. From the moment we know that we have a child on the way, our natural instincts are to take care of them. We pray for a healthy, happy child who loves us. One who’s born with all their fingers and toes, both eyes and a nose; seriously, we as mothers worry about everything. I even had dreams while I was pregnant of the what if’s, as I am sure most mothers-to-be do. We prepare for the arrival for months and months. But what happens when your child is born with Sensorineural Hearing loss?  A sensorineural hearing loss results from damage to the tiny hair cells in the inner ear.

We didn’t prepare for this…The questions and worry start to overcome your mind and they never quit. Normal worries come along with parenting, but a whole new set of worries come into play when you find out your child cannot hear. The first decision you have to make is what type of communication you want your child to have, oral or nonverbal. My husband and I wanted our daughter to be as independent as possible, so we chose verbal. And after three years of therapy, hearing aids and countless 2 ½ hour trips to and from these sessions we decided to get her a Cochlear Implant.

What is a Cochlear Implant? A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear. Unlike hearing aids, which make sounds louder, cochlear implants do the work of damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlea) to provide sound signals to the brain. Not all hearing impaired can receive this device but our daughter was a candidate.

Our daughter suffered hearing loss because the hair cells in her inner ear or (or cochlea) were nonexistent/damaged. The cochlear implant enables the sound to be transferred to her hearing nerves and enables her to hear. The process is described below:


1. A sound processor worn behind the ear or on the body, captures sound and turns it into digital code. The sound processor has a battery that powers the entire system.

2. The sound processor transmits the digitally-coded sound through the coil on the outside of your head to the implant.

3. The implant converts the digitally-coded sound into electrical impulses and sends them along the electrode array placed in the cochlea (the inner ear).

4. The implant's electrodes stimulate the cochlea's hearing nerve, which then sends the impulses to the brain where they are interpreted as sound.

 WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP:
Recently her sound processor has broken and we are in dire need of getting a new one or a new one to her. The only new one she ever received was when she was 3. We were lucky enough to have people donate devices to her over the years.

We have struggled financially since the laws and regulations of insurance and assistance have changed over the years. We lost assistance 1 year after she received the implant because we made $7.00 too much, yes only $7.00. I understand that guidelines have to be in place. However, when a child’s sole reliance on a device she needs to hear/communicate, there should be an exception. I really am exhausted to hear the solutions we were suggested by many agencies we applied for. “Quit your job and get a divorce”, “That is how the system works”. It never seems to be working for us. I am not a quitter, I have worked in the job force since the age of 13. And my husband is one of the hardest working men I know. He works long hours and even second jobs in the evenings. These suggestions are not what we want to teach our children.

Enough about that, I could write a book on that issue alone.

Our insurance will cover the upgrade once we meet our deductible. But, like many, our deductible is $10,000. Now we just don’t have access to that amount of money. We need it fast, school starts in just 8 weeks and the whole process can take even longer. Everyone has suggested starting a GoFundMe account. So, why not give it a try? I am asking for your help to get my daughter back to hearing again.

Let’s Hear it! Who is with us?

UPDATE: Someone just informed me my goal was only set to $1,000. While this will help with repair, we will still need to meet our deductible to get an upgrade. So I have changed the goal to just that. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am planning a benefit for our local community as well. Once I have a date set, I will announce details.
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Donations 

  • DeAnn Feltz
    • $100
    • 7 yrs
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Organizer

Brina Eakins
Organizer
Arcadia, MO

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