Henry’s Story

“Before I became a father, I had been acquainted with hearing loss through members of my immediate family. Growing up, many of the kids I knew wore hearing aids and relied on lip reading and sign language as their way of communicating.”

As a child, Henry had been introduced to many kids who were part of the deaf community. When his son Davie was born deaf, however, Henry found himself facing a new world.

“The diagnosis the audiologist gave us was that Davie had bilateral conductive hearing loss to a profound level. Now, even having spent a lifetime mixing with deaf people – I thought that sentence seemed like mumbo jumbo. I just wanted to know that he would have a good future.”

Davie’s hearing loss was caused by the lack of an ear canal and middle ear on the left and partial formation of both on the right, and he had no way of receiving sound into the inner ear. As a result, he was profoundly deaf. However, at 3 weeks old, David wore his first Hearing Aids by way of a soft head band – receiving sound in its simplest form.

“As with all kids, Davie grew. He learned to walk and talk, and though he had a little delay finding words and the clarity was not that of his peers, we were happy that he was speaking. He’s a happy and active little boy.”

“Recently he enrolled in Joey Scouts, attending regular meetings, participating in activities, and going away on camps. Many of his activities require adult support to help him negotiate the physical and mental challenges, but as a family we take them in our stride and look to the future.”