Hearing for the first time
In an Australian TV first, Sunday Night has aired the moment a profoundly deaf father-of-three heard for the first time in his life, live in the studio.
Sydney couple Tim and Natalie Nobes, both 44, were both profoundly deaf before receiving groundbreaking cochlear implant surgery on February 19 and had never heard each other's voices.
After a period of recovery, Sunday Night's cameras were present when Natalie had her implant activated on Wednesday, March 18, and heard her husband and children clearly for the first time.
Tim had to wait a few more days and joined Sunday Night in the studio for his big moment.
As a baby Tim had a small amount of residual hearing – would respond to a dog barked or a car horn – but he was 17 months old before his parents realised he was profoundly deaf.
“I can hear a dog barking, doorbell, birds whistling, helicopters and jets,” he told Sunday Night’s Helen Kapalos.
Tim said his first word at 20 months and developed more speech between two-and-a-half and three years old – when he started at The Shepherd Centre for hearing-impaired children and later met Natalie.
Natalie’s hearing was lost when her mother, Val, contracted the German measles virus early in her pregnancy.
Without hearing aids she hears nothing.
“When I hear people talking I hear a mumbling sound which is why I lip read. I can’t hear anything more than 10 metres away. Some noises under 10 metres I can hear but I don’t know what they are,” Natalie said.
She and Tim have been married for 21 years and have three beautiful kids; Laura, 18, Ryan, 17 and Emily, 12.
“It was only going one way when they met,” Tim’s mother told Sunday Night, “down the aisle.”
But in October 2013 they announced to their family they would have Cochlear implants and the operation was performed at Westmead Private Hospital this year.
“I want to be able to hear footsteps so I know when the kids are coming up behind me,” Natalie joked.
Cochlear implants turn sound into electric impulses that are sent to the inner ear then transmitted to the brain – making it effective for people who have severe hearing loss in high frequencies, but can still hear low frequency sounds.
When Tim finally heard his first clear sound via the device he was overwhelmed.
"It's strange," he said.
"I need to retrain my brain to understand people with my ears. I'll have to make people cover their mouths when they talk!"
You can find out more about Cochlear implant devices at the Sydney Cochlear Implant Clinic. The clinic relies on donations to help people access the life-changing treatment and you can contribute via the website.
The cochlear implants recieved by Tim and Natalie were from MED-EL, for more information about their products, visit www.medel.com.
