Bronwyn’s Story

Age: 49 l Experience with the Hybrid system: 18 months

Prior to receiving the Hybrid system, I struggled to communicate in group situations, in noisy or party backgrounds, in the car, at cinemas, during live stage shows and on the phone. At the time, I believed that any improvement to the quality of my life had to come from me and what I was prepared to do about it. I found out about the Hybrid system after my clinician informed me that I had good natural hearing and had good quality low tones. My clinician felt that I had too much to lose if I was to be implanted with a standard cochlear implant, if the low tones were to be lost during surgery.

Undergoing the surgery was of no-issue for me. The operation went without a hitch. It took all of about two hours. I was so relieved that it had gone so smoothly and quicker than my surgeon anticipated.

My experience with Hybrid has opened up a whole new world for me. Although my journey was slow in the beginning, it has now gone ahead in leaps and bounds. I still feel that there is a bit more to go with the fine-tuning of the programming.

My hearing experience has much improved. I am much more aware of speech and I ensure that I listen more carefully and attentively. I am now contributing more to conversations and my own speech is improving as well, as people have informed me. This is possibly due to hearing the sharper high frequency sounds and how crisp and sharp some words do sound.

I am now beginning to hear the twinkling of higher-pitched musical instruments in musical pieces which I didn’t hear before. The musical world is so beautiful. I am embracing the sounds of the instruments and the singing voices much more. I am absolutely loving it!

It has been a wonderful and life-changing experience. My whole life is much richer and I have gained the courage, belief and trust in myself and others. I am a much happier person and have gained the confidence and skills to seek more job opportunities. I really don’t believe that I would be this person today, had I not taken the Hybrid opportunity.