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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/news/s_453776.html
The tick-tock of a clock as the seconds pass by.
The rattle and clanking of a train passing through town. The blare of a fire engine siren. The ring of a telephone.
The noises of everyday life are music to Jody Shemansky's ears, but nothing sounded sweeter than the first time she heard her daughter's voice.
After spending her entire life in deaf silence, Shemansky, 36, can hear.
Thanks to modern-day technology and the Roscoe Lions Club, Shemansky, of Roscoe, underwent a surgical procedure last summer that restored most of her hearing.
Life hasn't been the same since.
"I'm still getting used to it," she said. "It's still hard to believe."
Shemansky has been deaf since coming down with a severe case of the chicken pox at age 2. Because Shemansky fell ill at such a young age, she grew up with no recollection of hearing. She subsequently learned sign language and how to read people's lips.
Midge Zdravecky, of Roscoe, said she began to notice that her daughter neither learned new words nor talked much after her bout with the chicken pox.
A hearing test confirmed her fears. Her daughter was deaf.
"I was just devastated," Zdravecky said.
She enrolled her daughter in the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf at age 3, but she was mainstreamed into the Charleroi schools when she got a little older.
Those were difficult years for the young girl, who found it hard to fit in with a classroom of children she couldn't hear, and who could not understand her impaired speech. She has a brother and sister, Marty Shemansky and Maria Zdravecky, both of Roscoe. Her mother and her husband, Ralph Zdravecky, live in the Cline Plan.
"They wanted her to try and talk and not use sign language," Midge Zdravecky said of her daughter's public school teachers.
Feeling different than her peers and wanting to fit in, Jody Shemansky decided at age 15 to return to the school for the deaf. She graduated from there in 1989.
As Jody Shemansky went through life, she never considered the possibility of regaining her hearing.
The birth of her daughter, Maddilynn Caldwell, 8, brought many new challenges to Jody Shemansky.
Her family put video monitors in the house and a motion sensor on her bed so the young mother could tell when the infant was crying.
Communication became easier as Maddilynn, a second-grader at California Area Elementary School, learned sign language.
"She is so wonderful with her mother and has been such a big help," Midge Zdravecky said.
Even though Shemansky adapted to her handicap, the family still wanted to help. Midge Zradvecky contacted her daughter's neighbor, George Safin, a Roscoe Lions Club member.
She was hoping the organization could help pay for hearing aids, which are not covered under Jody Shemansky's health insurance plan.
Safin took the request to his fellow Lions and they all agreed to help.
"We told her we would do whatever we could to help," Safin said.
Hoping to find out if hearing aids would help, the club helped to arrange an appointment last summer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Eye & Ear Institute .
But Jody Shemansky's appointment did not go as expected.
"They tested her and said a hearing aid wouldn't do her any good, but they said she was a candidate for a cochlear implant," her mother said.
After weighing the risks, Shemansky underwent the five-hour surgical procedure in September.
Through a cochlear implant, a small, complex electronic device helps to provide a sense of sound. The implant is surgically placed under the skin behind the ear.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, both children and adults can be candidates for implants.
According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2005 data, nearly 100,000 people worldwide have received implants. In the U.S., roughly 22,000 adults and nearly 15,000 children have received them.
Cochlear implants compensate for damaged or nonworking parts of the inner ear. Hearing through an implant might sound different from normal hearing, but it allows many people to communicate fully with oral communication in person and over the phone.
Shemansky will never forget one of the first sounds she heard after surgery.
"I heard the toilet flushing," she said. "Then I heard the telephone ringing and the clock ticking."
While those sounds were amazing to hear, it was Maddilynn's voice that brought her to tears.
"I just cried when I heard her," Jody Shemansky said.
While the procedure was a success, there are still up-front costs associated with the implant, and the Roscoe Lions again offered to pitch in. The organization paid for expensive batteries needed for the device. She will return the money once her insurance company provides reimbursement.
Lions Club President Bob Horan, of Allenport, and member Richard Webb, of Roscoe, were thrilled to be a part of Shemansky's hearing miracle.
"That's our whole goal, helping people," Horan said.
Jody Shemansky and her mother credit the Roscoe Lions for helping to arrange the key doctor's appointment that led to successful implant surgery.
"We just can't say enough good things about them," Midge Zdravecky said.
Shemansky still has a long road ahead of her as her hearing comes back. Her speech is still impaired, but she is undergoing therapy at California University of Pennsylvania.
"This is proof that anything is possible," her mother said.
The tick-tock of a clock as the seconds pass by.
The rattle and clanking of a train passing through town. The blare of a fire engine siren. The ring of a telephone.
The noises of everyday life are music to Jody Shemansky's ears, but nothing sounded sweeter than the first time she heard her daughter's voice.
After spending her entire life in deaf silence, Shemansky, 36, can hear.
Thanks to modern-day technology and the Roscoe Lions Club, Shemansky, of Roscoe, underwent a surgical procedure last summer that restored most of her hearing.
Life hasn't been the same since.
"I'm still getting used to it," she said. "It's still hard to believe."
Shemansky has been deaf since coming down with a severe case of the chicken pox at age 2. Because Shemansky fell ill at such a young age, she grew up with no recollection of hearing. She subsequently learned sign language and how to read people's lips.
Midge Zdravecky, of Roscoe, said she began to notice that her daughter neither learned new words nor talked much after her bout with the chicken pox.
A hearing test confirmed her fears. Her daughter was deaf.
"I was just devastated," Zdravecky said.
She enrolled her daughter in the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf at age 3, but she was mainstreamed into the Charleroi schools when she got a little older.
Those were difficult years for the young girl, who found it hard to fit in with a classroom of children she couldn't hear, and who could not understand her impaired speech. She has a brother and sister, Marty Shemansky and Maria Zdravecky, both of Roscoe. Her mother and her husband, Ralph Zdravecky, live in the Cline Plan.
"They wanted her to try and talk and not use sign language," Midge Zdravecky said of her daughter's public school teachers.
Feeling different than her peers and wanting to fit in, Jody Shemansky decided at age 15 to return to the school for the deaf. She graduated from there in 1989.
As Jody Shemansky went through life, she never considered the possibility of regaining her hearing.
The birth of her daughter, Maddilynn Caldwell, 8, brought many new challenges to Jody Shemansky.
Her family put video monitors in the house and a motion sensor on her bed so the young mother could tell when the infant was crying.
Communication became easier as Maddilynn, a second-grader at California Area Elementary School, learned sign language.
"She is so wonderful with her mother and has been such a big help," Midge Zdravecky said.
Even though Shemansky adapted to her handicap, the family still wanted to help. Midge Zradvecky contacted her daughter's neighbor, George Safin, a Roscoe Lions Club member.
She was hoping the organization could help pay for hearing aids, which are not covered under Jody Shemansky's health insurance plan.
Safin took the request to his fellow Lions and they all agreed to help.
"We told her we would do whatever we could to help," Safin said.
Hoping to find out if hearing aids would help, the club helped to arrange an appointment last summer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Eye & Ear Institute .
But Jody Shemansky's appointment did not go as expected.
"They tested her and said a hearing aid wouldn't do her any good, but they said she was a candidate for a cochlear implant," her mother said.
After weighing the risks, Shemansky underwent the five-hour surgical procedure in September.
Through a cochlear implant, a small, complex electronic device helps to provide a sense of sound. The implant is surgically placed under the skin behind the ear.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, both children and adults can be candidates for implants.
According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2005 data, nearly 100,000 people worldwide have received implants. In the U.S., roughly 22,000 adults and nearly 15,000 children have received them.
Cochlear implants compensate for damaged or nonworking parts of the inner ear. Hearing through an implant might sound different from normal hearing, but it allows many people to communicate fully with oral communication in person and over the phone.
Shemansky will never forget one of the first sounds she heard after surgery.
"I heard the toilet flushing," she said. "Then I heard the telephone ringing and the clock ticking."
While those sounds were amazing to hear, it was Maddilynn's voice that brought her to tears.
"I just cried when I heard her," Jody Shemansky said.
While the procedure was a success, there are still up-front costs associated with the implant, and the Roscoe Lions again offered to pitch in. The organization paid for expensive batteries needed for the device. She will return the money once her insurance company provides reimbursement.
Lions Club President Bob Horan, of Allenport, and member Richard Webb, of Roscoe, were thrilled to be a part of Shemansky's hearing miracle.
"That's our whole goal, helping people," Horan said.
Jody Shemansky and her mother credit the Roscoe Lions for helping to arrange the key doctor's appointment that led to successful implant surgery.
"We just can't say enough good things about them," Midge Zdravecky said.
Shemansky still has a long road ahead of her as her hearing comes back. Her speech is still impaired, but she is undergoing therapy at California University of Pennsylvania.
"This is proof that anything is possible," her mother said.