Cochlear Implants & Hollywood

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Byrdie714

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Has anyone notice that cochlear implants are getting a negative response from Hollywood as something that is abnormal?

Case in point:

Marlee Matlin was in that Hallmark Special about being married to the hearing guy and they had a deaf son. The father wanted their child to have the cochlear implant and alomost got a divorce, etc....remember that show?

Another show , "CSI New York". Again with Marlee Matlin where her daughter is murdered by the boyfriend who happens to have a cochlear implant and wanted their baby to have the same thing since the baby was also deaf.

Also showing on "Law & Order" that an CI recipient is mentally deranged as he has a hard time processing sounds and went on a murder spree.

If cochlear implants are great--why isn't Hollywood showing them in a positive light?
 
That doesn't mean that CI's aren't great for people who choose to have them, that just means stupid hearing ppl don't know their facts and are being rude in how Ddeaf ppl with CI's are being portrayed
 
Hm good question! Probably because they dont know much abt implants. its good they are showing implants but not good as showing in a negative way
 
Byrdie714 said:
Has anyone notice that cochlear implants are getting a negative response from Hollywood as something that is abnormal?

Case in point:

Marlee Matlin was in that Hallmark Special about being married to the hearing guy and they had a deaf son. The father wanted their child to have the cochlear implant and alomost got a divorce, etc....remember that show?

Another show , "CSI New York". Again with Marlee Matlin where her daughter is murdered by the boyfriend who happens to have a cochlear implant and wanted their baby to have the same thing since the baby was also deaf.

Also showing on "Law & Order" that an CI recipient is mentally deranged as he has a hard time processing sounds and went on a murder spree.

If cochlear implants are great--why isn't Hollywood showing them in a positive light?
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you don't understand, they are doing what they do to christians (and other religions) sometime. They have an agenda to make people who are against (or for..or whatever their agenda is) CI as evil people.
 
Well, there's your answer.................Hollywood loves simplistic drama.
 
I consider CIs a tool to give the deaf access to sounds. I am against the CI hype, many who get CIs could be getting access to sounds with the proper HAs. But CIs are great if you don't have enough residual hearing to amplify with HAs, but for those that do, HAs are great, way cheaper than CIs and no risk.
 
deafdude1 said:
many who get CIs could be getting access to sounds with the proper HAs.
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People wouldn't really be getting CIs if they were getting benefit from their hearing aids in the first place. Most ppl don't look into Cochlear Implants unless they aren't getting benefit from their hearing aids and CI audi's USUALLY do trials with stronger hearing aids first as well before being able to qualift for a cochlear implant.
 
AliciaM said:
People wouldn't really be getting CIs if they were getting benefit from their hearing aids in the first place. Most ppl don't look into Cochlear Implants unless they aren't getting benefit from their hearing aids and CI audi's USUALLY do trials with stronger hearing aids first as well before being able to qualift for a cochlear implant.
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I really wish this was the case, Ive read several stories now where people lose or break their HAs and get insurance to pay for their CI. Insurance doesn't pay for HAs, something they really, really should! :mad:

Also ive noticed a bunch of people made no mention of trying the best HAs, well CI would be better than their 5 year old HA at low volume. Not a fair comparsion, id like to compare CI to the best HA at high volume. You also said "usually" which means some CI audies still fail to do trials with stronger HAs.

I make no arguements about CI being great for those with very profound losses that they simply can't get enough amplification with the best HAs but others actually have much better hearing than me(moderately HOH) yet they somehow qualified for a CI? That was unheard of just a few years ago. I only have to look at Phi4Sius's thread to see how well he's hearing with HA(the right HA's mind you). He hears better than the majority of CI wearers and he scores 100% on speech and hears all environmental sounds!

It's all a matter of trying many different HAs. For people like Phi4Sius, high power analogs work great! I am seriously considering trying analogs too, perhaps Oticon's Sumo analog. They actually are more powerful than my Phonak Naida's except they don't have transposition but I don't yet know if ill even benefit from transposition, if I don't id like to try other brands of HAs.
 
deafdude1 said:
I really wish this was the case, Ive read several stories now where people lose or break their HAs and get insurance to pay for their CI. Insurance doesn't pay for HAs, something they really, really should! :mad:

Also ive noticed a bunch of people made no mention of trying the best HAs, well CI would be better than their 5 year old HA at low volume. Not a fair comparsion, id like to compare CI to the best HA at high volume. You also said "usually" which means some CI audies still fail to do trials with stronger HAs.

I make no arguements about CI being great for those with very profound losses that they simply can't get enough amplification with the best HAs but others actually have much better hearing than me(moderately HOH) yet they somehow qualified for a CI? That was unheard of just a few years ago. I only have to look at Phi4Sius's thread to see how well he's hearing with HA(the right HA's mind you). He hears better than the majority of CI wearers and he scores 100% on speech and hears all environmental sounds!

It's all a matter of trying many different HAs. For people like Phi4Sius, high power analogs work great! I am seriously considering trying analogs too, perhaps Oticon's Sumo analog. They actually are more powerful than my Phonak Naida's except they don't have transposition but I don't yet know if ill even benefit from transposition, if I don't id like to try other brands of HAs.
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This is a critical error in thinking you have. YOU ARE PROFOUNDLY DEAF, not HOH.

Audiology Awareness Campaign: How to Read an Audiogram

"over 90 dB = Profound hearing loss."
 
deafdude1 said:
I really wish this was the case, Ive read several stories now where people lose or break their HAs and get insurance to pay for their CI. Insurance doesn't pay for HAs, something they really, really should! :mad:

Also ive noticed a bunch of people made no mention of trying the best HAs, well CI would be better than their 5 year old HA at low volume. Not a fair comparsion, id like to compare CI to the best HA at high volume. You also said "usually" which means some CI audies still fail to do trials with stronger HAs.

I make no arguements about CI being great for those with very profound losses that they simply can't get enough amplification with the best HAs but others actually have much better hearing than me(moderately HOH) yet they somehow qualified for a CI? That was unheard of just a few years ago. I only have to look at Phi4Sius's thread to see how well he's hearing with HA(the right HA's mind you). He hears better than the majority of CI wearers and he scores 100% on speech and hears all environmental sounds!
It's all a matter of trying many different HAs. For people like Phi4Sius, high power analogs work great! I am seriously considering trying analogs too, perhaps Oticon's Sumo analog. They actually are more powerful than my Phonak Naida's except they don't have transposition but I don't yet know if ill even benefit from transposition, if I don't id like to try other brands of HAs.
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HIS loss IS moderate. He said in a previous post that it is about 65 db. THAT is why he hears so well with his aids :roll:
 
I have a 85 db natural hearing loss in both ears. That's why I did not benefit hearing aids as well.
 
Wow... if hollywood says that CI either makes your parents divorce or makes you want to kill your own child, it must be so!

(Pssst, wasn't there a recent law n order show about how a jealous best friend killed his friend because the friend got the CI? Does this also mean anti CI people kill CI people? :Ohno:)
 
Daredevel7 said:
Wow... if hollywood says that CI either makes your parents divorce or makes you want to kill your own child, it must be so!

(Pssst, wasn't there a recent law n order show about how a jealous best friend killed his friend because the friend got the CI? Does this also mean anti CI people kill CI people? :Ohno:)
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Yes they often do. ;) In that Law and Order the murderer was very afraid of being left behind when his friend would join the hearing.
 
I am replying to the posts about CI that was posted in my HA thread.

SteveESP52 said:
Deafdude,

I understand you are trying to really understand what level of hearing ability someone with a CI has. This is the only way to make an educated decission. Have you spoken with an audiologist who programs CI's and is familiar with the programming options? Have you attended any CI meeting in your area either associated with a University or one of the CI manufacturers?
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The best way is I read an audiogram of aided CI results, such as this one:

f02a.jpg


That person has in the left ear a 90 and 100db loss at 250Hz and 500Hz and NR above that. His HAs are giving only 40db gain, perhaps the reason was the same as Hear Again's who had an audiogram like his and Hear Again has said before that she didn't benefit from HAs or more gain. Regardless, a CI in his case as well as Hear Again's made sense and the odds of it being better than HAs was quite good.

His right ear is similar to mine, but he needs better HAs. I am already hearing much better than he ever did with HAs and my audiologist believes I could be hearing low frequencies at 15db and mid frequencies at 35db(and if transposition works, ill hear the highs the same as the mids) So from reading case studies like his, I can conclude that you simply can't have much residual hearing period(90db or worse) and no residual hearing in the mids and highs.

All the case studies, the patients exhabited profound HL in the CI ear and no better than severe-profound in the contralateral ear. None of them were aided to better than moderate with HAs either. All of them achieved a 10-20db improvement with CI and were able to hear high frequencies. They achieved a CI threshold in the 25db to 40db range.

To answer your other questions, that's a no. I did see pics of how CI is programmed. Theres threshold(T) and comfort(C) levels. I am still learning why some people can't get better than 50db or 60db threshold while others seemingly reach 25, 20, even 15db thresholds!

SteveESP52 said:
In regards to hearing at 0db. I asked the question of my Audiologist during my Friday mapping session and was told that some centers adjust the audiogram 25db to reflect a 0db "normal" audiogram appearance. We looked at the programming and the lowest db that the CI will start sending stimulation for and found it to be 24db. Both mine are set at 25db.
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The best CI results ive ever seen was 10db. 25db is still great for CI but if your ear and CI is capable of better, why not try for 20db with a different map?

SteveESP52 said:
Regarding HA, it has been a while since I used mine, but also know I was just trying to get it set so I could hear speech as clearly as possible. I really wasn't worried about hearing everything.
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I do feel that people focus too much on the clarity of speech. It may be a big deal for hearing people(and perhaps late deafened postlinguals) but for most of us, especially the prelinguals, we relay on other methods of accessing speech such as lip reading, ASL(im 100% oral) and writing/typing. When people talk, they usually look at others in the face. I read their lips and understand almost everything they say. I combine lip reading with hearing their voice and don't understand why anyone has to struggle? :hmm:

SteveESP52 said:
As far as my ability to hear sounds today, my audiologist tested my speech understanding on my bilateral CI (activated January 2009) on Friday and scored 97%. My first CI (activated January 2007) scored 100% when it was tested
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What kind of speech comphrension test? Those are very impressive scores :D

SteveESP52 said:
Again, I hope you are able to find the information you need.
BTW, I have tried to find my audiograms to share and have been unable to locate them. I have another appointment in early June and hope to remember to ask for them for you. Sorry I forgot.
Steve
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You can call(I assume you now hear phones) your audiologist and ask him to email or fax a copy of your audiograms. Just tell him you lost/misplaced yours and you need another copy.
 
I remember long time ago (about 7 years ago) an Austrailian Soap = Home and Away there was a family was devastated with their little boy who was born deaf or had menigitis as young baby can't remember which. It was a little boy with 2 cochlear implants, miraclously when there was actor change later in the year to an little older boy no CI's... he's hearing again!! WOW! Not!
 
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